The Brontë family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë

BE8Q

I

THE BRONTE FAMILY

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO

PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTE
VOL. 1.

THE BRONTE FAMILY

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO

PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTE

FRANCIS A. LEYLAND.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON: ' V

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,

13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1886.

All rights reserved.

v.l

PREFACE.

IT has long seemed to me that the history
of the Bronte family is incomplete, and, in
some senses, not well understood. Those who
have written upon it — as I shall have occasion
to point out iii these pages — have had certain
objects in view, which have, perhaps necessarily,
led them to give undue weight to special points
and to overlook others. Thus it happens that,
though there are in the hands of the public-
several able works on the Brontes, there are
many circumstances relating to them that are
yet in comparative obscurity. Especially has
injustice been done to one member of the
family— Patrick Bran well Bronte — whose life
has several times been treated by those who
have had some other object in view; and,
through a misunderstanding of the character
of the brother, the sisters, Anne in particular,
have been put, in some respects, in a false

vi PREFACE.

light also. This circumstance, coupled with
the fact that I am in possession of much
new information, and am able to print here
a considerable quantity of unknown poetry
from Branwell's hand, has induced me to write
this work. Those of his poems which are
included in these volumes are placed in deal-
ing with the periods of his life in which they
were written, for I felt that, however great
7night be the advantages of putting them to-
gether in a complete form, much more would
be lost both to the interest of the poems
and the life of their ' author in doing so.
Branwell's poems, more, perhaps, than those
of any other writer, are so clearly expressive
of his feelings at the time of their writing,
that a correct view of his character is only
to be obtained by looking upon them as parts
of his life-history, which indeed they are. And,
moreover, when we consider the circumstances
under which any of these were written, our
understanding and appreciation of the subject
must necessarily be much fuller and truer. It
has not escaped the attention of writers on
the Bronte story that Branwell had an im-

PREFACE. vii

portant influence on his sisters; and, though
I maintain it to have been essentially different
from what others allege, it would not be
possible to do justice either to him or to
them without saying a good deal about his
character.

I have felt it right, in these pages, to some
extent also, to re-consider the character of the
Rev. Patrick Bronte, which has, along with
that of his son, suffered unfair treatment in
the biographies of his daughters. I have like-
wise entered upon some account of the local
circumstances of art and literature which sur-
rounded the Brontes, an element in their history
which has hitherto been unknown, but is especi-
ally necessary to a right understanding of the
life and work of Branwell Bronte and his
sisters. These circumstances, and the altered
view 1 have taken of the tone of the lives
of Mr. Bronte and his son, have obliged me
to deal more fully than would otherwise have
been necessary with the early years of the
Brontes, but 1 venture to hope that this may
be atoned for by the new light I have thus
been enabled to throw on some important

viii PREFACE.

points. There are published here, for the first
time, a series of letters which Branwell Bronte
addressed to an intimate friend, J. B. Leyland,
sculptor, who died in 1851, and it is with
these that a fresh insight is obtained into an
interesting period of Branwell's life.

I am largely indebted in some parts of my
work, especially those which deal with the
lives of the sisters, to Mrs. Gaskell's fascinating
' Life of Charlotte Bronte ' ; and it is a source
of sincere regret to me that I am compelled
to differ from that writer on many points. I
am likewise indebted in parts to Mr. T. Wemyss
Reid's admirable ' Charlotte Bronte : a Mono-
graph,' a work which has corrected several
errors and misconceptions into which Mrs. Gas-
kell had fallen. The reader will perceive that
I am obliged in several places to combat the
theories and question the statements of Miss
A. Mary F. Robinson in her ' Emily Bronte,'
a book which, nevertheless, so far as its special
subject is concerned, is a worthy contribution
to the history of the Brontes.

I have also found of much use, in writing this
work, an article entitled 'Branwell Bronte,' which

PREFACE. ix

Mr. George Searle Phillips — ' January Searle' —
published in the ' Mirror' in 1872. The chapter
in Mr. Francis H. Grundy's ' Pictures of the
Past ' on Branwell Bronte, has likewise been of
the greatest service to me. Both these gentle-
men were Bran well's personal friends, .and to
them I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness.

Among many other sources of informa-
tion respecting the Brontes, of which I have
availed myself in writing these pages, I may
mention Hours at Home, ( Unpublished Letters
of Charlotte Bronte ' ; Scribner, * Reminiscences
of Charlotte Bronte ' ; the Athenaeum, ' Notices
and Letters,' by Mr. A. C. Swinburne, and ' One
of the Survivors of the Bronte-Bran well Family.'
To this lady I must also express my obligation
for her very kind letter to me.

In the preparation of my work I have been
greatly assisted by the information, and en-
couraged by the sympathy, of several who
had personal knowledge of Patrick Branwell
Bronte, and who have supported the view I
have taken of his life and character, and also
who had like knowledge of the other members
of the Bronte family. Among these, I have

X PREFACE.

to express my sincere thanks to Mr. H. Merrall
and to Mr. William Wood, who were early
acquaintances of Brairwell ; also to Mr. William
Dearden. To Mr. J. H. Thompson and Mrs.
Thornton I am greatly indebted for informa-
tion respecting Branwell's sojourn in Bradford.
I have likewise derived much information from
the family of the Browns, now all deceased,
except Mrs. Brown, to whom I have to express
my obligation. I have also gained much re-
liable information from Nancy Garrs, now Mrs.
Wainwright, the nurse of the Brontes, and to
her I must especially express my thanks. To
these, I must not omit to add my deep and
sincere thanks to those who will not permit
me to mention them by name, for the unwearied
assistance, counsel, and literary judgment which
they have as cheerfully, as they have ably,
rendered.

F. A. L.

i

OAKWOOD, SKIECOAT, HALIFAX,
October, 1885.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIEST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

Bronte Genius — Patrick Bronte — His Birthplace — His
early Endeavours — Ordained — Presented to Hartshead
— High Town — His Courtship and Marriage — Removes
to Thornton — His House — Thornton Chapel — Mrs.
Bronte's failing Health — Mr. Bronte Accepts the
Living of Haworth — Kudeness of the Inhabitants —
Local Fights between Haworth and Heptonstall —
Description of Haworth — Mrs. Bronte dies . 1

CHAPTER II.

The Mother of the Brontes — Her Character and Personal
Appearance — Her Literary Taste — Penzance, her
Native Place — Description of Penzance — The Bran-
well Family — Personal Traits of Maria Branwell —
Her Virtues — Her Letters to Mr. Bronte— Her
Domestic Experiences ..... 133

xii CONTENTS.

Character of the Rev. P. Bronte— Charges against Him—
Serious Allegations of Biographers— Injustice of the
Charges— Mr. Bronte's indignant Denial of the Im-
putations—Testimony of Nancy Garrs— Mrs. Bronte
and the Silk-Dress Episode— Mr. Bronte, the sup-
posed Prototype of Mr. Helstone — The Pistol-shots
Theory — Mr. Bronte on Science Knowledge — Miss
Branwell . . ' 41

CHAPTER IV.

Girlhood — Gravity of Character — Charlotte's Description
of the Elf-land of Childhood— The Still and Solemn
Moors of Haworth influence their Writings — The
Present of Toys — The Plays which they Acted —
Mr. Bronte on a Supposed Earthquake — The Evi-
dence of his Care for his Children — Grammar School
at Haworth— His Children under the Tuition of the
Master — The Character of the School — Cowan-Bridge
School — Charlotte's View of Mr. Cams Wilson's
Management — Deaths of Maria and Elizabeth . 57

CHAPTER V.

Reunion of the Bronte Family — Branwell is the supposed
Prototype of Victor Crimsworth — That Character
not a complete Portrait of Branwell — His Friendships
— His Visit to the Keighley Feast — Its Effect on
Branwell's Nerves — The Wrestle — The Lost Spec-
tacles— Fear of his Father's Displeasure — Mrs. Gas-
kell's Story of the ' Black Bull ' Incident Questioned
— Miss Branwell and her Nephew ... 81

CONTENTS. Xlll

CHAPTER VI.

The youthful Compositions of the Brontes — Their Charac-
ter— BranwelTa Share in them — ' The Secret,' a Frag-
ment— The Reading of the Bronte Children — Bran-
well's Character at this Period .... 93

CHAPTER VII.

Charlotte goes to Roe Head — Return Home — Bramvell at
the Time — The Companion of his Sisters — Escorts
Charlotte on a Visit — He becomes Interested in
Pugilism — His Education — His Love for Music — His
Retentive Memory — His Personal Appearance — His
Spirit 109

CHAPTER VIII.

Love of Art in the Youthful Brontes — Their elaborate
Drawings — J. B. Leyland, Sculptor — Spartacus — Mr.
George Hogarth's Opinion — Art Exhibition at Leeds
— Mr. William Robinson, their Drawing-Master —
Bramvell aims at Portrait-Painting — J. B. Leyland in
London — Branwell and the Royal Academy— He
visits London 123

CHAPTER IX.

Charlotte re turns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe
Head — Their Determination to Maintain themselves
— Charlotte's Fears respecting Emily — Charlotte's re-
ligious Melancholy — Accuses herself of Flippancy —
She is on the Borders of Despair — Anxiety to Know
more of the World — Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a
Teacher — Charlotte's Excitability — She returns Home
out of Health 147

XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell —
Bibliography — Mrs. Gaskell — The Causes which led her
into Error — Resentment of Branwell's Friends — Mr.
George Searle Phillips — Branwell as Depicted by Mr.T.
Wemyss Reid — Mr. F. H. Grundy's Notice of Branwell
— Miss A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait of Branwell,

159

CHAPTER XI.

Branwell becomes a Freemason — His love of Art undi-
minished — Has Instruction in Oil-Painting — Com-
mences Portrait-Painting at Bradford — His Com-
missions —His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the Artist —
Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct — Her Er-
roneous Statements — Branwell's true Character and
Conduct at Bradford — Remarks on his alleged Opium-
eating there ....... 172

CHAPTER XII.

New Inspiration of Poetry— Wordsworth— Southey, Scott,
and Byron— Southey to Charlotte Bronte— Hartley
Coleridge— His Worthies of Yorkshire— Poets of the
West-Riding— Alaric A. Watts— Branwell's Literary
Abilities . 134

CHAPTER XIII.

Branwell's Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas — Remarks
upon it— No Reply— He Tries Again— His Interest
in the Manchester and Leeds Railway— Branwell's
Literary and Artistic Friends at Bradford and Halifax

CONTESTS. XV

— Leyland's Works there — Bramvell's great Interest
in them — Early Verses — Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment on
his Literary Abilities . . . . . 193

CHAPTER XIV.

The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius — ' Caroline's
Prayer ' — ' On Caroline ' — ' Caroline ' — Spirit of these
Early Effusions 210

CHAPTER XV.

Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage — Her Remarks concern-
ing it— A second Offer Declined — Anne a Governess
— She Moralizes upon it — Charlotte obtains a Situa-
tion— Unsuited to Her — She Leaves it — Branwell
takes Pleasure in Scenery — He Visits Liverpool with
his Friends — Charlotte goes to Easton — Curates at
Haworth — Their Visits to the Parsonage — Public
Meetings on Church Rates — Charlotte's Attempt at a
Richardsonian Novel — She sends the Commencement
of it to Wordsworth for his Opinion — Branwell re-
ceives an Appointment as Private Tutor . 228

CHAPTER XVI.

The District of Black Comb — Branwell's Sonnet — Words-
worth and Hartley Coleridge — Branwell's Letter to
the ' Old Knave of Trumps ' — Its Publication by
Miss Robinson in her ' Emily Bronte ' — Branwell's
familiar Acquaintance with the People of Haworth
— He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy —
His Knowledge of the Human Passions — Emily's
Isolation 219

XVI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.

Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends — He gets a
Situation on the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge — Bran-
well at Luddenden Foot — His Friends' Reminiscences
of him — Charlotte and Emily reading French Novels —
Charlotte obtains a Situation — Anxious about Anne —
School Project of the Sisters — Charlotte's keen Desire
to visit Brussels — Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell,

264

CHAPTER XVIII.

Situation of Luddenden Foot — Branwell visits Manchester
— The Sultry Summer — He visits the Picturesque
Places adjacent — His impromptu Verses to Mr. Grun-
dy — He leaves the Railway Company — Miss Robin-
son's unjust Comments — His three Sonnets — His poem,
' The Afghan War ' — Branwell's letter to Mr. Grundy
— His Self-depreciation 287

THE BRONTE FAMILY.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE BRONTES.

Bronte Genius — Patrick Bronte — His "Birthplace — His
early Endeavours — Ordained — Presented to Hartshead
— High Town — His Courtship and Marriage — Removes
to Thornton — His House — Thornton Chapel — Mrs.
Bronte's failing Health — Mr. Bronte' Accepts the
Laving of Haworth — Rudeness of the Inhabitants —
Local Fights between Haworth and Heptonstall —
Description of Haworth — Mrs. Bronte dies.

NOT many stories of literary success have at-
tracted so much interest, and are in themselves
so curious and enthralling, as that of the Bronte
sisters. The question has often been asked how
it came about that these children, who were
brought up in distant solitude, and cut off, in a
manner, from intellectual life, who had but a
partial opportunity of studying mankind, and
VOL. I. B

2 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

scarcely any knowledge of the ways of the out-
side world, were enabled, with searching hands,
to dissect the finest meshes of the passions, to
hold up in the clearest light the springs of
human action, and to depict, with nervous
power, the most masculine and forcible aspects
of character. The solution has been sought in
the initiatory strength and inherent mental dis-
position of the sisters, framed and moulded by
the weird and rugged surroundings of their
youth, and tinged with lurid light and vivid
feeling by the misfortunes and sins of their un-
happy brother. To illustrate these several
points, the biographers of Charlotte and Emily
Bronte have explained, as the matter admitted
of explanation, the intellectual beginnings and
capability of the sisters, have painted in sombre
colours the story of their friendless childhood,
and lastly, with no lack of honest condemnation,
have told us as much as they knew of the sad
history of Patrick Bran well Bronte, their brother.
It is a curious fact that this brother, who was
looked upon by his family as its brightest orna-
ment and hope, should be named in these days
only in connection with his sisters, and then but

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 3

with apology, condemnation, or reproach. In
the course of this work, in which Bran well
Bronte will be traced from his parentage to his
death, we shall find the explanation of .this cir-
cumstance ; but we shall find, also, that, despite
his failings and his sins, his intellectual gifts, as
they are testified by his literary promise and his
remains, entitle him to a high place as a worthy
member of that extraordinary family. It will
be seen, moreover, that his influence upon Char-
lotte, Emily, and Anne was not what has been
generally supposed, and that other circum-
stances, besides their own domestic troubles,
inspired them to write their masterpieces.

The father of these gifted authors, Patrick
Bronte, whose life and personal characteristics
well deserve study, was a native of the county
Down. He was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1777 ;
and, after an infancy passed at the house of his
father, Hugh Bronte, or Brunty, at Ahaderg —
one of the ten children who made a noisy
throng in the home of his parents — he opened, at
the age of sixteen, a village school at Drumgoo-
land, in the same county. In this occupation
he continued after he had attained his majority,

B 2

4 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

and was never a tutor, as Mrs. Gaskell supposes j
but, being ambitious of a clerical life, through
the assistance of his patron, Mr. Tighe, incum-
bent of Drumgooland and Drumballyroony, in
the county of Down, he was admitted to St.
John's College, Cambridge, on the 1st of October
in the year 1802, when he had attained his
twenty-fifth year. At Cambridge we may in-
fer that he led an active life. It is known
that he joined a volunteer corps raised to be in
readiness for the French invasion, threatened at
the time. After a four years' sojourn at his col-
lege, having graduated as a bachelor of arts,
in the year 1806, he was ordained, and appoint-
ed to a curacy in Essex, where he is said not to
have stayed long.

The perpetual curacy of Hartshead, in the
West Riding of Yorkshire, having become va-
cant, Mr. Bronte received the appointment, on
the presentation of the vicar of Dewsbury.

The church of St. Peter, at Hartshead — which
has extensive remains of Norman work, and has
recently been restored — is situated on an emi-
nence about a mile from the actual hamlet of
that name ; and, with its broad, low, and mas-

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 5

•sive tower, and its grim old yew-tree, forms a
conspicuous object for miles around, command-
ing on all sides extensive and magnificent
views of the valleys of Calder and Colne, with
their wooded slopes, and pleasant farms, and
the busy villages nestling in the hollows. At
the foot of the hill, the deep and sombre woods
of Kirklees hide the almost indistinguishable
remains of the convent, founded by Raynerus
Flandrensis, in the reign of Henry II., for nuns
of the order of Citeaux.

There are interesting circumstances and evi-
dences concerning Kirklees, its Roman entrench-
ments being very distinct within the park which
overlooks the Calder at this point. The priory,
too, has its curious history of the events which
attended the cloistered life of Elizabeth de
Stainton, one of the prioresses, whose monu-
mental memorial alone remains of all that
marked the graves of the religious of that house ;
and there are stories relating to Robin Hood.
Here still exists the chamber in which tradition
says the ' noble outlaw ' died, and also the grave,
at a cross-bow shot from it, where long genera-
tions of men have averred his dust reposes. The

6 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

district of Kirklees had an interest for Charlotte-
Bronte, and she has celebrated it in ' Shirley,'
under the name of Nunnely, with its old church,
its forest, its monastic ruins, and ' its man of
title — its baronet.' It was to the house of the
latter — kind gentleman though he was — that
Louis Moore could not go, where he ' would
much sooner have made an appointment with
the ghost of the Earl of Huntingdon to meet
him, and a shadowy ring of his merry men,
under the canopy of the thickest, blackest, oldest
oak in Nunnely Forest . . . would rather have
appointed tryst with a phantom abbess, or mist-
pale nun, among the wet and weedy relics of
that ruined sanctuary of theirs, mouldering in
the core of the wood.'

Mr. Bronte entered upon his ministrations at
Hartshead in the year 181.1 ; and there are
entries in the churchwarden's book of Easter-
dues paid to him up to 1815. It is curious
to note that, in this early mention of Mr.
Bronte, the name is spelled ' Brunty ' and
4 Bronty.'

Hartshead being destitute of a glebe house,
and no suitable residence existing either at this-
place or at the neighbouring village of Clifton

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 7

at the time, Mr. Bronte took up his residence at
High Town, in a roomy and pleasant house at
the top of Clough Lane, near Liversedge in the
parish of Birstall, and about a mile from the
place of his cure. The house, which commands
beautiful views, is entered by a passage of the
ordinary width, on the left of which is the draw-
ing-room, having cross-beams ornamented with
plaster mouldings, as when first finished. On
the right of the passage is the dining-room.
The breakfast-room and kitchen are behind
them. The house is three stories in height, and
stands back about two yards from the road, which
points direct to the now populous towns of
Liversedge and Cleckheaton, both places of
considerable antiquity, whose inhabitants, em-
ployed in various manufacturies, were increasing
in Mr. Bronte's time.

Finding himself now in possession of a com-
petent income and a goodly residence, he felt
relieved from those anxieties which, in all pro-
bability, had attended his early struggles ; and,
resting awhile in his ambition, he turned in
peace and contentment to poetical meditation.
His first book was called 'Cottage Poems,' on the
title-page of which he describes himself as the

8 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

' Reverend Patrick Bronte, B.A., minister of
Hartskead-cum-Clifton.' This book was pub-
lished at Halifax in the year 1811. The
following are a few of its subjects : ' The Happy
Cottagers,' 'The Rainbow/ 'Winter Nights'
Meditations,' 'Verses sent to a Lady on her
Birthday,' ' The Cottage Maid,' an^ ' The Spider
and the Fly.' Mr. Bronte thus speaks of himself
and his work : ' When relieved from clerical
avocations he was occupied in writing the
" Cottage Poems ;" from morning till noon, and
from noon till night, his employment was full
of indescribable pleasure, such as he could wish
to taste as long as life lasts. His hours glided
pleasantly and almost imperceptibly by, and
when night drew on, and he retired to rest, ere
his eyes closed in sleep witfh sweet calmness and
serenity of mind, he often reflected that, though
the delicate palate of criticism might be dis-
gusted, the business of the day in the prosecu-
tion of his humble task was well-pleasing in the
sight of God, and by His blessing might be
rendered useful to some poor soul who cared
little about critical niceties.' Throughout he
professes to be indifferent to hostile criticism.

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 9

It is pleasant to find that Mr. Bronte, although
settled in competence in a picturesque part of
England, was not forgetful of his parents or of
the land of his birth. So long as his mother
lived he sent her twenty pounds a year ; and,
though we have no record of the occasion, we
may safely infer that he found opportunity to
visit Ireland again. He maintained his connec-
tion with the district of his early life ; and, in
after years, he appointed a relative of Mr. Tighe
to be his own curate. One of his 'Cottage
Poems ' is entitled ' The Irish Cabin,' a verse or
two from which may here be given : —

' Should poverty, modest and clean,

E'er please when presented to view,
Should cabin on brown heath or green,

Disclose aught engaging to you ;
Should Erin's wild harp soothe the ear,

When touched by such fingers as mine,
Then kindly attentive draw near,

And candidly ponder each line.'

He describes a winter-scene on the mountains
of Morne — a high range of hills in the north of
Ireland — and thus alludes to his hospitable re-
ception in the clean and industrious cabin of his
verses: —

10 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

' Escaped from the pitiless storm,

I entered the humble retreat ;
Compact was the building, and warm,

In furniture simple and neat.
And now, gentle reader, approve

The ardour that glowed in each breast,
As kindly our cottagers strove

To cherish and welcome their guest.'

It is unnecessary to give in this place further
extracts from this book ; suffice it to say that,
in all probability, Mr. Bronte lived to see the
day when he was pained and surprised that he
had ever committed it to the press.

Although the poems of Mr. Bronte are inspired
by the love of a peaceful and contented life,
free from excitement and care, yet in times of
trouble and emergency, such as those of the
Luddite riots which occurred during the period
of his ministration at Hartshead, he showed
again the active and resolute spirit which had
prompted and sustained the efforts of his early
ambition ; and his ardour in helping to suppress
the turbulent spirit of the neighbourhood would
have made him very unpopular with the dis-
affected people, had they not learned to respect
the upright and unfailing rectitude of his

TBEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 11

conduct. In the energetic character of Mr.
Bronte's life in these early times, in his persist-
ent ambition, and in the literary pursuits which
clearly were dear to him, we may trace those
factors of working power and literary aspira-
tion and taste which made up the characteristic
intellectual force of his children.

Mrs. Gaskell, in her ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,'
has given some of the particulars of the Reverend
Mr. Bronte's courtship and marriage, in which
she appears to have taken a lively interest.

Mr. Bronte met his future wife, (Miss Maria
Branwell — of whose character I shall speak in
the next chapter — the third daughter of Mr. T.
Brauwell of Penzance, deceased) for the first
time about the summer of 1812, when she was
on a visit to her uncle, the Rev. John Fennel,
a Methodist minister and head-master of the
Wesleyan Academy at Woodhouse Grove, near
Bradford, but who became later a clergyman of
the Establishment, and was made incumbent
of Cross-stone, in the parish of Halifax. This
meeting was soon followed by an engagement,,
and, says Mrs. Gaskell, there were plans for happy
picnic-parties to Kirkstall Abbey in the glowing

12 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

September days, when ' Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin
Jane ' — the last engaged to a Mr. Morgar,
another clergyman — were of the party.

In the account which Mr. Bronte gives of the
aim and scope of the work from which I have
made an extract, and the state of his mind while
engaged upon it, we have a retrospect of the
inner life of the father of the Brontes, during
his sojourn at Hartshead as perpetual curate,
prior to his marriage with Miss Branwell. In
this period of his life, he seems to have been
perfectly happy, no cloud or anticipation of
future sorrow having obscured or diminished the
fulness of his peace. The marriage was cele-
brated on the 29th of December, 1812, at Guise-
ley, near Bradford, by the Rev. W. Morgan,
minister of Bierley, the gentleman engaged to
'Cousin Jane.' It is a very curious circumstance
that on the same day, and at the same place,
Mr. Bronte performed the marriage ceremony
between his wife's cousin, Miss Jane Fennel, only
daughter of the Mr. Fennel alluded to above,
a,nd the Rev. W. Morgan, who had just been, as
described, the officiating clergyman at his own
wedding.

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 13

Mr. Fennel would naturally have performed
the ceremony for his niece and Mr. Bronte,
had it not fallen to his lot to give the lady
away.

When Mr. Bronte found himself settled in
married life at Hartshead, and with the proba-
bility of a young family rising around him, he
felt pleasure in the contemplation of the future.
Mrs. Bronte, ever gentle and affectionate in her
household ways, comforted and encouraged him
in his literary pursuits, and, by her acute observa-
tion and accurate judgment, directed and aided
his own. It was at this time that Mr. Bronte
wrote a book, entitled ' The Rural Ministry,'
which was published at Halifax, in 1813. The
work consisted of a miscellany of descriptive
poems, with the following titles : ' The Sabbath
Bells,' ' Kirkstall Abbey,' ' Extempore Verses,'
' Lines to a Lady on her Birthday,' ' An Elegy,'
' Reflections by Moonlight,' ' Winter,' ' Rural
Happiness,' ' The Distress and Relief/ ' The
Christian's Farewell,' * The Harper of Erin.' It
cannot be doubted that, in consequence of his
two publications while he was at Hartshead,
Mr. Bronte became known in the surrounding

14 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

districts as an aspiring man, and one of literary
culture and ability.

Mr. Bronte had taken his bride to his house at
High Town, and it was there that his daughters
Maria and Elizabeth were born. Maria was
baptized on April the 23rd, 1814, and is entered
in the register as the 'daughter of Patrick Bronte
and Maria his wife.' The Rev. Mr. Morgan was
the officiating minister. There is no such entry
there relating to Elizabeth, for she was baptized
at Thornton with the other children.

Mr. Bronte, after having been nearly five
years minister of Hartshead-cum-Clifton, resigned
the benefice, and accepted, from the vicar of
Bradford, the incumbency of Thornton, a per-
petual curacy in that parish. This, probably,
on the suggestion of Mr. Morgan, who was then
incumbent of Christ's Church at Bradford.

Thornton is beautifully situated on the
northern slope of a valley. Green and fertile
pastures spread over the adjacent hills, and
wooded dells with shady walks beautify and
enrich the district. « The neighbourhood,' says
Mrs. Gaskell, ' is desolate and wild ; great tracts
of bleak land, enclosed by stone dykes, sweeping

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 15

up Clayton Heights.' This disagreeable picture
of the place, painted by the biographer of Char-
lotte, is scarcely justified by the actual appear-
ance of the district. The soil is naturally fertile,
and the inhabitants are notable for industry and
enterprise. Hence no barren land, within the
wide range of hill and vale, is now seen obtruding
on the cultivated sweep.

The town is somewhat regularly built. In the
main street is situated the house where Mr.
Bronte took up his abode during his stay at
Thornton. The hall door was reached by several
steps. There was a dining-room on one side of
the hall, and a drawing-room on the other. Over
the passage to the front was a dressing-room,
at the window of which the neighbours often
saw Mr. Bronte at his toilet. Above the door of
the house, on a stone slab, there are still visible
the letters :

A.

J. S.

1802

These are the initials of John and Sarah Ash-
worth, former inhabitants of Thornton; and this
residence remained as the parsonage until

16 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

another was built below, nearer to the chapel,
by the successor of Mr. Bronte.

The chapel of Thornton is a narrow, con-
tracted, and unsightly building. The north side
is lighted by two rows of square cottage windows
— on the south side, five late perpendicular
pointed windows permit the sun to relieve the
gloom of the interior.

The diminutive communion-table is lighted by
a four-mullioned window, above which, exter-
nally, in the wall, appears the date 1620. The
interior is blocked, on the ground floor, with
high-backed, unpainted deal pews. Two galleries
hide the windows almost from view, and cast a
gloom over the interior of the edifice. The area
under the pews, and in the aisles, is paved with
gravestones, and a fetid, musty smell floats
through the damp and mouldering interior. In
this chapel, Mr. Bronte preached and ministered,
and from the pulpit, placed high above the
curate and clerk, whence he delivered his ser-
mons, he could see his wife and children in a
pew just below him.

The new incumbent of Thornton seems to
have taken active interest in his chapel ; for in

THEIR EARLY CIHCU.MSTAXCES. 17

the western screen, which divides a kind of lobby
from the nave, is painted, on a wooden tablet,
an inscription recording that in the year 1818
this chapel was 'Repaired and Beautified,' the
Rev. Patrick Bronte, B.A., being then minister.

While at Thornton Mr. Bronte steadily pursued
his literary avocations, one of his books being a
small volume entitled, ' The Cottage in the Wood,
or the Art of becoming Rich and Happy.' This
is an account of a pious family, consisting of an
aged couple and a virtuous child, whose appear-
ance and education qualify her for a higher
position in the world than that of a cottager's
daughter. Accident brings to their door a young
man in a state of almost helpless drunkenness,
whose habits are the most profligate and dissolute,
as the sequel discloses; and the object of the
book is to show the dire consequences of con-
tinued intemperance. The story is told in prose,
but Mr. Bronte gives a poetical version of one
event in the narrative. It is entitled, ' The
Nightly Revel,' and possesses a dignity of its
own. The following extract shows considerable
improvement, in diction and verse, upon the style
of his small volume published at Halifax, in 1811.
VOL. I. C

18 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

For this reason it is well worth reproducing.

' Around the table polish'd goblets shine,
FilM with brown ale, or crown'd with ruddy wine ;
Each quaffs his glass, and, thirsty, calls for more,
Till maddening mirth, and song, and wild uproar,
And idly fierce dispute, and brutal fight
Break the soft slumbers of the peaceful night.

' Without, within, above, beneath, around,
Ungodly jests and deep-mouthed oaths resound ;
Pale Reason, trembling, leaves her reeling throne,
Truth, Honour, Virtue, Justice, all are flown ;
The sly, dark -glancing harlot's fatal breath
Allures to sin and sorrow, shame and death.
The gaming-table, too, that fatal snare,
Beset with fiercest passions fell is there ;
Remorse, despair, revenge, and deadly hate,
With dark design, in bitter durance wait,
Till SCARLET MURDER waves his bloody hand,
Gives in sepulchral tone the dread command ;
Then forth they rush, and from the secret sheath
Draw the keen blade and do the work of death.'

Mr. Bronte also, in 1818, before his appoint-
ment to Haworth, published his ' Maid of Killar-
ney.' He had not been long at Thornton, where
he went about the year 1815, when a considerable
increase in his family added to his parental
responsibilities.

On his acceptance of the living, he probably
enjoyed a larger stipend than at Hartshead, but

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 19

the demands of a young family, perhaps, on the
whole, made him a poorer man. There Charlotte
Bronte was born in April, 1816 ; Patrick Bran-
well Bronte in .1817; Emily Jane Bronte in
1818 ; and Anne Bronte probably just before
Mr. Bronte's removal to Haworth, which was
on February 25th, 1820, as we are told by Mrs.
Gaskell.

Of the life of the Brontes at Thornton we
know little. But there were causes of anxiety
pressing on Mr. Bronte at the time. The state
of his wife's health was a real sorrow, and al-
though he derived solace from his literary pur-
suits and the society of his clerical friends, his
spirits were damped by the contemplation of
the season of bereavement and affliction that
assuredly threatened him at no distant date.

With six young children, who might soon
become motherless, Mr. Bronte's future was
dark and discouraging, and he entertained the
idea of resigning, at no distant day, the then
place of his cure. Here, living within a
reasonable distance of Bradford, he had an
opportunity of moving in a larger circle of
friends than at Hartshead, and it was here that

c2

20 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

his children received their earliest impressions
of local life and character. Old inhabitants of
Thornton remembered them playing in the
space opposite their father's residence, in the
village street, and had often seen them carried,
or their parents lead them by the hand, in the
lanes of the neighbourhood. They were children
only when they left Thornton ; yet, on many
grounds, the inhabitants of that village may
feel privileged that it was the birthplace of the
authors of * Jane Eyre,' ' Wuthering Heights,'
and ' The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.'

Shortly an opportunity presented itself to Mr.
Bronte for leaving Thornton, a vacancy having
taken place at Haworth through the death of
the curate, Mr. Charnock. The situation of this
chapelry was blessed with a more bracing air,
and the curate had a somewhat better stipend
than Thornton allowed, and so Mr. Bronte ac-
cepted the presentation from the patron. We
are .informed, however, that, on visiting the
place of his intended ministrations, he was told
that while to him personally the parishioners
had no objection, yet, as the nominee of the
vicar of Bradford, he would not be received.

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 21

He bad no idea that the inhabitants bad a veto
in the appointment.

On Mr. Bronte declaring that, it' he had not
the good-will of the inhabitants, his ministra-
tions would be useless, the place was presented
to Mr. Redhead by the patron, and the village
seems to have become the scene of extraordi-
nary proceedings. It appears that, after the
Reformation, the presentation to the curacy of
Haworth, which had been from time immemorial
vested in the vicar of Bradford, had become
subject to the control of the freeholders, and of
certain trustees who held possession of the
principal funds from which the stipend of the
curate proceeded, which they could withhold,
by virtue of an authority they appear to
have been empowered with. In effect, they
could at any time disallow or render void an
appointment, if disagreeable to themselves, by
keeping back the stipend. Mr. Bronte, writing
later of Mr. Redhead, says of this : ' My prede-
cessor took the living with the consent of the
vicar of Bradford and certain trustees, in conse-
quence of which he was so opposed that, after
only three weeks' possession, he was compelled

22 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

to resign.' What this opposition and its imme-
diate effects were, we learn from the pages of
Mrs. Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' and
they may be mentioned here as illustrative of
the pre-eminent resolution and force of charac-
ter which ever distinguish the inhabitants of the
West Riding and the dwellers on these rough-
hewn and storm-beaten elevations.

During the long illness which preceded the
death of Mr. Charnock, incumbent of Haworth,
his assistant curate, Mr. Redhead, had supplied
his place ; who, on Mr. Bronte's withdrawal, was
presented, as is stated above, to the vacant
living by the patron, and he seems to have
been determined to hold the chapelry, vi et armis,
in defiance of the inhabitants. But the free-
holders, conceiving they had been deprived of
their long established prerogative, or an attempt
was being made to interfere with it, protested
against Mr. Redhead's appointment. On the
first occasion of this gentleman's preaching in
the church, it was crowded not by worshippers,
but by a multitude of people bent on mischief.
These resolved the service should not proceed, or
that it should be rendered inaudible. To secure

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 23

this object they had put on the heavy wooden
clogs they daily wore, except on Sundays, and,
while the surpliced minister was reading the
opening service, the stamping and clattering
of the clogs drowned his voice, and the people
left the church, making all the noise and up-
roar that was in their power, which was by no
means feeble. The following Sunday witnessed
proceedings still more disgraceful. We are told
that at the commencement of the service, a man
rode up the nave of the church on an ass, with
his face to the tail, and with a number of old
hats piled on his head. On urging his beast for-
ward, the screams of delight, the roars of laugh-
ter, and the shouts of the approving conspira-
tors completely drowned the clergyman's voice ;
and he left the chapel, but not yet discomfited.

Mr. Redhead, on the third Sunday, resolved
to make a strenuous and final effort to keep the
ecclesiastical citadel of which he had been
formally put in possession. For this purpose he
brought with him a body of cavalry, composed
of a number of sympathising gentlemen, with
their horses ; and the curate, thus accompanied
by his supporters, ascended the village street

24 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

and put up at the ' Bull.' But the enemy had
been on the alert: the people were exasperated,
and followed the new-comers to the church,
accompanied by a chimney-sweep who had, not
long before, finished his labours at some adja-
cent chimneys, and whom they had made half
drunk. Him they placed right before the
reading-desk, which Mr. Kedhead had already
reached, and the drunken, black-faced sweep
nodded assent to the measured utterances of the
minister. ' At last,' it is said, ' either prompted
by some mischief-maker, or from some tipsy
impulse, he clambered up the pulpit stairs, and
attempted to embrace Mr. Redhead. Then the
fun grew fast and furious. Some of the more
riotous pushed the soot-covered chimney-sweeper
against Mr. Redhead, as he tried to escape.
They threw both him and his tormentor down
on the ground in the churchyard where the
soot-bag had been emptied, and though, at
last, Mr. Redhead escaped into the " Black Bull,"
the doors of which were immediately barred,
the people raged without, threatening to stone
him and his friends.'1 They escaped from the

1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. ii.

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 25

place, and Mr. Redhead, completely vanquished,
retired from the curacy of Haworth.

Mr. Bronte, who had made a favourable im-
pression on the inhabitants, was now accepted
by them, and the natural kindness of his disposi-
tion and the urbanity of his manners, secured
peace and contentment in the village.

His responsibilities as a pastor were not light,
though the new scene of his labours, in moral
condition, was, perhaps, no worse than the
generality of similar villages in the north of
England. The special chroniclers of Haworth
speak of the population of the barren mountains
west of York as 'rude and arrogant, after the
manner of their wild country.' This is the
testimony of James Either, a Yorkshire esquire.
The celebrated Oliver Haywood, preaching at
the house of Jonas Foster, at Haworth, on June
13th, 1672, broke out into lamentations about
the immorality, corruption, and profanity of the
place. Mr. Grimshaw, in the last century, while
curate there, had a conviction that the majority
of the people were going to hell with their eyes
open ! Mrs. Gaskell informs us that at Haworth,
* drinking without the head being affected was

26 THE BRONTE FAMILY".

considered a manly accomplishment.' A re-
markable instance of the loss of reverence and
the increase of profanity, in those days, is found
in the observance of Palm Sunday at Hepton-
stall, a neighbouring village, and at Haworth
itself this feast was pre-eminently distinguished
in ancient times by the out-door processions of
people going from the church and returning to
it, bearing palm branches and singing the psalms
and hymns appointed for the special festival.

It is known, indeed, that this feast was attended
by the inhabitants of the surrounding hills and
valleys in those times; and, at the period of
which I speak, the attendance of the people
was not diminished, but increased, though they
came for another object. It is a singular fact
that local feuds, if we may call them such, were
kept up between the villages of the West
Riding. And thus challenges were given alter-
nately by Haworth to Heptonstall, and by
Heptonstall to Haworth, for struggles between
the champions of the respective villages, to
be fought out on Palm Sunday. The inhabit-
ants of these places, therefore, met to pound
and pummel each other without any civil or

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 27

religious cause to give bitterness to the fray:
greed of triumph and brutal indifference to-
injuries inflicted characterized these hostile
meetings. On such occasions, at Heptonstall,
amidst great drunkenness and rioting, there
were ' stand-up ' fights from the church-gates
to the ' Buttress,' a steep part of the road,
near the bridge which crosses the river at the
foot of Heptonstall Bank — nearly a mile in
extent. On one of these feasts, a Haworth
belligerent, unwilling to return home, although
night was drawing on, and looking extremely
dissatisfied, when asked by his wife what ailed
him, answered, 'Aw 'annot fawhten wi' onny
body yet, an' aw'll nut gooa whom till aw dun
summat.' His affectionate spouse replied, 'Then
gooa, an' get fawhten' an' ha' done wi' it, for
we mun • gooa.' The West Riding police, on
their institution, put an end to these disagrace-
ful proceedings.

Haworth, the new place of Mr. Bronte's in-
cumbency, which has been well and very fully
described by many writers, is situated on the
western confines of the parish of Bradford, and
stands on a somewhat lofty eminence. It is,

28 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

however, protected in great measure from the
Avestern storms by still higher ground, which
consists of irreclaimable moors and morasses.

The church in which he, for the remainder of
his life, performed his religious services, and in
which his more gifted children repose, after
their brief but memorable lives, was of ancient
date. A chantry was founded there at the
beginning of the reign of Edward III., where
a priest celebrated daily for the repose of the
soul of Adam de Battley, and for the souls of
his ancestors, and for all the faithful departed.
The church, which is dedicated to the glory of
God, in honour of St. Michael the archangel,
has been recently, to a great extent, re-edified.
The old structure retained traces of one still
older, of the early English style. Invested as
it was with the evidences of the periods of taste
good and bad through which it had passed, and
with the associations which attach to old and
familiar internal arrangements, it was endeared
to the inhabitants. Of such associations the
present church — though an architectural gain
upon its predecessor — is necessarily destitute,
and the world-wide interest with which the

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 29

former structure was invested through the
genius of the Brontes has been almost de-
stroyed by the substitution of an edifice in
which they never prayed, and which they never
saw; though their remains repose, it is true,
under its pavement, as is indicated by memorial
tablets.

During the existence of the old church,
Haworth was visited by continuous streams of
people; but, on its removal, little was left to
a1 tract pilgrims from afar, and there was a
manifest diminution of visitors to the village.

In the recent alterations, the parsonage also,
in which the children of the Eev. Patrick Bronte
lived and won for themselves enduring fame in
the path of literature, has undergone consider-
able changes. It has been found necessary to
add a new wing to the house, in order to obtain
larger accommodation, and, to beautify the par-
sonage still further, the old cottage panes,
through which light fell on precious and in-
valuable pages of elaborate manuscript, as they
passed through delicate and gifted hands, have
given way to plate-glass squares. Altogether
the house, both inside and out, presents a very

30 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

different appearance from that which it did in
the time of the Brontes.

The chapehy at Haworth, when Mr. Bronte
accepted the perpetual curacy, was much more
populous and important than that of Thornton.
The stipend of £170 per annum, with a fair
residence attached, and a sum of £27 13s. for
maintenance, made the change a desirable one
on pecuniary grounds ; and, with Mrs. Bronte's
annuity of £50 a year, anxiety on this head was
no doubt allayed.

The population of the district was about four
thousand seven hundred, and, in the first ten
years of Mr. Bronte's incumbency, increased by
nearly twelve hundred souls. The chapelry in-
cluded within its bounds the townships or hamlets
of Stanbury and Near and Far Oxenhope, with
the extensive moors and scattered houses stretch-
ing to the borders of Lancashire. The curacy of
Stanbury, a place one mile west of Haworth,
with £100 per annum, was in the gift of Mr.
Bronte ; and there was also the interest on £600,
with a house, for the maintenance of a free
school at that place, and a sum of £90 per
annum for a like purpose at Haworth. In the

THEIR EARLY CIRCUMSTANCES. 31

year 1849, while Mr. Bronte was still incumbent,
the chapelry of Haworth was divided, a church
having been erected at Oxenhope at a cost of
£1,500, the curacy there being valued at £150
per annum.

Among the considerations which had weight
with Mr. Bronte in his determination to accept
the curacy of Haworth was, in all probability,
the delicate state of his wife's health, and the
not over-robust constitutions of his children.
He knew, that though from the smoke-laden
atmosphere of the busy centres of West Riding
industry, Keighley and Haworth were not wholly
exempt, yet the winds which prevailed from the
west and the south-west for a great part of the
year, and swept over the moorlands from whose
heights the Irish Channel itself was visible,
would, by their purity, give that invigoration
of which his family stood in need. It is quite
possible, indeed, that by Mr. Bronte's removal
to Haworth, which gave an almost illimitable
range of wild, heathery hills for his children to
wander over, an extension of their short lives
may have been attained. Mrs. Bronte, however,
derived little or no benefit from the change.

32 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

She had suffered for some time under a fatal
malady — an internal cancer — of which, about
eighteen months after her arrival at Haworth,
she died.

33

CHAPTER II.

MRS. BRONTE.

The Mother of the Brontes — Her Character and Personal
Appearance — Her Literary Taste — Penzance, her
Native Place — Description of Penzance — The Bran-
well Family — Personal Traits of Maria Branwell —
Her Virtues — Her Letters to Mr. Bronte' — Her
Domestic Experiences.

THE mother of the Brontes — whose death, in
September, 1821, deprived her children of the
affectionate and tender care which, for the short
period of her married life, she had bestowed
upon them — would, had she been spared, have
moulded their characters by her own meek,
gentle, and maternal virtues. Mrs. Bronte is
said to have been small in person, but of grace-
ful and kindly manners ; not beautiful, yet
comely and ladylike, and gifted with great
discrimination, judgment, and modesty. Mrs.
VOL. I. D

34 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Gaskell says she ' was very elegant, and always
dressed with a quiet simplicity of taste which
accorded well with her general character, and
of which some details call to mind the style of
dress preferred by her daughter for her favourite
heroines.' Mrs. Bronte was also gifted with
literary ability and taste. She had written an
essay entitled, ' The Advantages of Poverty in
Religious Concerns,' with a view to publication
in some periodical ; and her letters were charac-
terized by elegance and ease. Her relations in
Penzance spoke of her as ' their favourite aunt,
and one to whom they, as well as the family,
looked up as a person of talent and great
amiability of disposition ;' and again, as ' possess-
ing more than ordinary talents, which she
inherited from her father.'

Mrs. Bronte, as has been said, was a native of
Penzance, a corporate town in the county of
Cornwall, and also a sea-port. Penzance is
situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is the
most westerly town in England. The climate
is distinguished by great mildness and salubrity,
and the land is remarkable for its fertility, and

MRS. BRONTK. 35

the beauty of its meads and pastures. Its mari-
time situation, however, had, in former times,
exposed it to the descents of foreign invaders,
the last of which appears to have been that of
the Spaniards in the year 15i>5. The account
given of this event is that the invaders, being
masters of Bretagne, sent four vessels manned
with a force sufficient to occupy the Cornish
coast. They landed near Mousehole — a well-
known place on the western side of Mount's
Bay — and entered the town, which they set on
fire, the inhabitants fleeing before them. At a
later date the town became .very pleasant, and
many of the houses were large and respectable,
while the streets were well paved. Generally
the people enjoyed long lives, and some attained
the patriarchal age : one of these — Dolly Pen-
treath, who died in her one hundred and second
year, and who had made the * Mousehole ' her
residence — was known as the last who spoke
Cornish. On account of the gentleness of the
climate, many suffering from pulmonary corn-
plaints took up their residence there.

Peuzance was a town surrounded by places of

D2

36 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

great interest to the historian and the antiquary,
which are fully described by Borlase and others.
The trades carried on at the place were of con-
siderable extent in tin and the pilchard fishery,
as well as in copper, earthenware, clay, and in
other objects of manufacture and merchandise.
In one of the local industries, Mr. Thomas Bran-
well was engaged. He had married a lady
named Carne, and they had four daughters and
one son. Maria was their third daughter. The
families of Mr. and Mrs. Branwell were well
connected, and moved in the best society in
Penzance. They were Wesleyan Methodist in
religion, and the children were brought up in
that persuasion. Mr. Branwell relieved the cares
of business by the delights and consolations of
music, in the performance of which he is said to
have had considerable ability. He and his wife
lived to see their children grown up ; and died,
Mr. Branwell in 1808, and his wife in 1809.

Maria Branwell visited her uncle, Mr. Fennel,
at the beginning of the summer of 1812, as is
stated above, and, for the first time, saw Mr.
Bronte. A feeling of mutual admiration sprang
up between them, and something like the

MRS. BRONTE. 37

beginning of an engagement took place. When
she returned home, a correspondence opened
between the two, and Mr. Bronte preserved the
letters. These have been referred to by the
biographer of his daughter, and we learn that
the communications of Miss Bran well were
characterized by singular modesty, thoughtful-
ness, and piety. She was surprised to find herself
so suddenly engaged, but she accepted with
modest candour the proffer of Mr. Bronte's
affection. The future was determined by mutual
acquiescence. On Miss Branwell, nature had
bestowed no great personal attractions, yet, as
has been said, she was comely, and lady-like in
her manners ; and her innate grace drew irresisti-
bly to her the esteem of all her acquaintances.
Little is known respecting her beyond the
personal traits already mentioned ; and as to the
circumstances and events of her life, unmarried
or married, which was one of an extremely even
and uneventful kind, little or nothing can be
recorded beyond the ordinary routine of domes-
tic duties well and affectionately performed, and
of obligations in her sphere religiously observed.
Blameless in her conduct, loving in her charge,

33 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

and patient in the sufferings she was called
upon to endure, she was a pattern of those ex-
cellencies which are the adornments of domestic
life, and make the hearth happy and content-
ed. It cannot be doubted that she ordered
her household with judgment, and expended her
husband's income with frugality and to the best
advantage.

Mrs. Gaskell was enabled to give an extract
from one of her letters written to Mr. Bronte
before her marriage, which displays in an excel-
lent manner her calm sensibility and under-
standing. She says : ' For some years I have
been perfectly my own mistress, subject to no
control whatever ; so far from it that my sisters,
who are many years older than myself, and even
my dear mother, used to consult me on every
occasion of importance, and scarcely ever
doubted the propriety of my opinions and actions;
perhaps you will be ready to accuse me of vanity
in mentioning this, but you must consider that I
do not boast of it. I have many times felt it a
disadvantage, and although, i thank God, it has
never led me into error, yet, in circumstances of

MRS. BRONTE. 39

uncertainty and doubt, I have deeply felt the
want of a guide and instructor.' l

The usual preparations, which Mrs. Gaskell has
particularized, were made for the wedding ; but
during the arrangements a disaster happened,
to which the following letter to Mr. Bronte
refers : —

'I suppose you never expected to be much
richer for me, but I am sorry to inform you that
I am still poorer than I thought myself. I men-
tioned having sent for my books, clothes, &c.
On Saturday evening, about the time when you
were writing the description of your imaginary
shipwreck, I was reading and feeling the effects
of a real one, having then received a letter from
my sister, giving me an account of the vessel in
which she had sent my box being stranded on
the coast of Devonshire, in consequence of which
the box was dashed to pieces with the violence
of the sea, and all my little property, with the
exception of a few articles, being swallowed up
in the mighty deep. If this should not prove

I1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iii.

40 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

the prelude to something worse, I shall think
little of it, as it is the first disastrous circumstance
which has occurred since I left home.' 1

The wedding took place at Guiseley, on
December 29th, 1812, as is stated in the pre-
vious chapter.

1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iii.

41

CHAPTER III.

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE.

Character of the Rev. P. Bronte — Charges against Him —
Serious Allegations of Biographers — Injustice of the
Charges — Mr. Bronte's indignant Denial of the Im-
putations— Testimony of Nancy Garrs — Mrs. Bronte
and the Silk-Dress Episode — Mr. Bronte, the Sup-
posed Prototype of Mr. Helstone — The Pistol-shots
Theory — Mr. Bronte on Science Knowledge — Miss
Bramvell.

THE character of the Rev. Patrick Bronte, who
was responsible, after the death of his wife, for
the education of his children, if we may believe
the accounts given of it by those who have
admired their genius, had many deplorable pecu-
liarities. It would be difficult, indeed, to find
anywhere the record of such passionate out-
breaks, such unreasoning prejudices, and such
unbending will as are revealed in the stories
which are told of him. But we shall see pre-

42 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

sently that most of these charges have no
foundation in fact, while others are, probably,
the result of total misconception.

Mrs. Gaskell gives an account of these pecu-
liarities. On one occasion, she tells us, after
the children had been out on the wet moors,
the nurse had rummaged out certain coloured
boots given to them by the Rev. Mr. Morgan,
who had been sponsor for Maria at Hartshead,
and had arranged them before the fire. Mr.
Bronte observing this, and thinking the bright
colours might foster pride, heaped the boots
upon the coals, and filled the house with a
very strong odour of burnt leather. 'Long
before this,' she says, ' some one had given
Mrs. Bronte a silk gown . . . she kept it trea-
sured up in her drawers. One day, however,
while in the kitchen, she remembered that she
had left the key in the drawer, and, hearing
Mr. Bronte upstairs, she augured some ill to
her dress, and, running up in haste, she found
it cut into shreds . . . He did not speak when
he was annoyed or displeased, but worked off
his volcanic wrath by firing pistols out of the
back-door in rapid succession . . . Now and

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTK. 43

then bis anger took a different form, but still
was speechless. Once he got the hearth-rug,
and, stuffing it up the grate, deliberately set
it on fire, and remained in the room in spite of
the stench until it had smouldered and shrivelled
away into uselessness. Another time he took
some chairs, and sawed away at the backs till
they were reduced to the condition of stools.'1

Mr. Wemyss Reid, who implicitly adopts the
' pistol shots ' and ' pretty dress ' stories, while
paying a high tribute to Mr. Bronte's rectitude,
and to his just pride in the celebrity of his
daughters, says of him, 'He appears to have
been a strange compound of good and evil.
That he was not without some good is acknow-
ledged by all who knew him. He had kindly
feelings towards most people ... But through-
out his whole life there was but one person
with whom he had any real sympathy, and that
person was himself.' He was ' passionate, self-
willed, vain, habitually cold and distant in his
demeanour towards those of his own house-
hold.' His wife ' lived in habitual dread of her
lordly master ... It would be a mistake to
1 Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap, iii, 1st edition.

4-i THE BRONTE FAMILY.

suppose that violence was one of the weapons
to which Mr. Bronte habitually resorted . . .
his general policy was to secure his end by
craft rather than by force.'1

Miss Robinson, without hesitation, repeats tha
censures on Mr. Bronte published by Mrs. Gas-
kell and Mr. Reid, asking, * Who dare say if
that marriage was happy ? Mrs. Gaskell. writ-
ing in the life and for the eyes of Mr. Bronte,
speaks of his unwearied care, his devotion in
the night-nursing. But, before that fatal illness
was declared, she lets fall many a hint of the
young wife's loneliness ... of her patient suf-
fering, of his violent temper.'2

It will thus be seen that the disposition of
Mr. Bronte must have been a sad one indeed,
if all these statements are true ; and marvel-
lous that, with ' such a father,' the young and
sterling faculties of the 'six small children'
should have been so admirably directed and
trained that, of the four who lived to later
years, three at least occupy an exalted and

1 ' Charlotte Bronte, a Monograph,' pp. 20, 21, 22.
2 ' Emily Bronte,' by A. Mary F. Robinson, 1883, p. 16.

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. 45

prominent position among women of letters in
the present century. And it would be still
more strange that these children were espe-
cially distinguished for the gentleness of their
dispositions, and the refinement of their ideas.
It may be hoped that the readers of this volume,
with their additional knowledge of the affection-
ate, but often wayward, Bran well, will sympa-
thize with the sentiment which Monsieur Heger
expressed in his letter to Mr. Bronte, that, en
jugeant un pere de famille par ses enfants on ne
risque pas de se tromper. For we can scarcely
doubt that the characteristics of the children,
which I have named, were due, in fact, in great
measure, to Mr. Bronte's affectionate supervision
and education of them. He had graduated at
St. John's College, Cambridge, as we have seen ;
and the culture and tone of the university were
brought under the roof of his house, where his
children — more especially Branwell — were sub-
jected to its influence. Moreover, whatever may
be thought of Mr. Bronte's intellectual gifts, or
of the talent he displayed in his poems and prose
writings, we may be sure that he possessed, in a

46 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

marked degree, a deep sympathy with a higher
mental training, and with the truth and simplicity
of a pastoral life.

After the allegations against Mr. Bronte had
appeared in the first edition of the life of his
daughter Charlotte, he never ceased to deny the
scandalous reflections upon his character in that
work. 'They were,' he said to me, 'wholly
untrue.' He stated that he had ' fulfilled every
duty of a husband and a father with all the
kindness, solicitude, and affection which could be
required of him.' And Mrs. Bronte herself had
said, as quoted by Mrs. Gaskell, 'Ought I not to
be thankful that he never gave me an angry
word T thus openly declaring that, whatever
might have been the peculiarities of Mr. Bronte's
temper, his wife, at least, never suffered the
consequences. The children also ever looked
up to their father with reverence, gratitude, and
devotion.

In a conversation I had with Mr. Bronte on
the 8th of July, 1857, he spoke of the unjustifiable
reflections upon himself which had been made
public, and he said, ' 1 did not know that I had
an enemy in the world, much less one who would

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. 47

traduce me before iny death, till Mrs. Gaskell's
"Life of Charlotte" appeared. Every thing in that
book which relates to my conduct to my family
is either false or distorted. I never did commit
such acts as are there ascribed to me.' At a later
interview Mr. Bronte explained that by the word
* enemies,' he implied, 'false informants and
hostile critics.' He believed that Mrs. Gaskell
had listened to village scandal, and had sought
information from some discarded servant.

Let us then examine the source of these
allegations. Mrs. Gaskell tells us that her
informant was ' a good old woman,' who had
been Mrs. Bronte's nurse in her illness. Now it
is known that, whatever good qualities this
person may be supposed to have had, her con-
scientiousness and rectitude, at least, were not
of the first order, and she was detected in pro-
ceedings which caused Mr. Bronte to dismiss her
at once. With the double effect of explaining
her dismissal and injuring Mr. Bronte, this person
gave an account of his temper and conduct,
embellished with the stories which I have quoted
from the first edition of the ' Life of Charlotte,'
to a minister of the place ; and it was in this way

48 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

that Mrs. Gaskell became acquainted with her
and them. Nancy Garrs, a faithful youn g woman
who had been in Mr. Bronte's service at Thorn-
ton, who continued with the family after the
removal to Haworth, and who still survives — a
widow, Mrs. Wainwright — at an advanced age, a
well-known inhabitant of Bradford, informs me
that the ' silk dress ' which Mr. Bronte is said to
have torn to shreds was a print dress, not new,
and that Mr. Bronte, disliking its enormous
sleeves, one day, finding the opportunity, cut
them off. The whole thing was a joke, which
Mrs. Bronte at once guessed at, and, going up-
stairs, she brought the dress down, saying to
Nancy, ' Look what he has done ; that falls to
your share.' Nancy declares the other stories
to be wholly unfounded. She speaks of Mr.
Bronte as a ' most affectionate husband ; there
never was a more affectionate father, never a
kinder master ;' and ' he was not of a violent
temper at all ; quite the reverse.'

This view of these slanderous stories is fortu-
nately also confirmed out of the mouth of Char-
lotte Bronte. In the fourth chapter of ' Shirley/
speaking of Mr. Helstone — whose character,

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. 49

though not absolutely founded on that of her
father, is yet unquestionably influenced by her
knowledge of his disposition, and of some inci-
dents in which he had been concerned, — she says
that on the death of his wife, ' his dry-eyed and
sober mourning scandalized an old housekeeper,
and likewise a female attendant who had waited
upon Mrs. Helstone in her sickness .... they
gossiped together over the corpse, related anec-
dotes with embellishments of her lingering
decline, and its real or supposed cause ; in short,
they worked each other up to some indignation
against the austere little man, who sat examin-
ing papers in an adjoining room, unconscious
of what opprobrium he was the object. Mrs.
Helstone was hardly under the sod when ru-
mours began to be rife in the neighbourhood
that she had died of a broken heart; these
magnified quickly into reports of hard usage,
and, finally, details of harsh treatment on the
part of her husband : reports grossly untrue, but
riot less eagerly received on that account.' It
will thus be seen that the character of Mr. Hel-
stone becomes in part a defence of Mr. Bronte.
On the occasion above referred to, Mr. Bronte
VOL I. E

50 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

went on to say that, ' while duly acknowledging
the obligations he felt himself under to Mrs.
Gaskell for her admirable memoir of his daugh-
ter, he could not but regard her uncalled-for
allusions to himself, and the failings of his son
Bran well, as the excrescences of a work other-
wise ably earned out.' He appeared, on this
occasion, to be consoled by the thought that,
owing to the remonstrances he had made, the
objectionable passages would be expunged
from the subsequent editions of the work, and
that he would ultimately be set right with the
public. He concluded with these words : — ' 1
have long been an abstraction to the world, and
it is not consoling now to be thus dragged
before the public ; to be represented as an un-
kind husband, and charged with acts which I
never committed.'

The story of the pistol-shots admits of ready
explauation. It is known that Mr. Bronte, like
Helstone, had a strange fascination in military
affairs, and he seems to have had almost the
spirit of Uncle Toby. He lived, too, in the
troublous times of the Luddites, and had kept
pistols for defence as Mr. Helstone did. That

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. 51

gentleman, it will be remembered, had two pairs
suspended over the mantel-piece of his study, in
cloth cases, kept loaded. As I have reason to
know, Mr. Bronte, having been accustomed to
the use of fire-arms, retained the possession of
them for safety in the night ; but, fearing they
might become dangerous, occasionally dis-
charged them in the day-time.

Mr. Bronte's remonstrances and denials, and
his refutation of the scandals attributed to him,
had their effect ; and the charges complained of
were entirely omitted in the edition of the ' Life
of Charlotte,' published in the year 1860. Mr.
Bronte was in his eighty-fourth year when this
tardy act of bare justice was done to him. It
may be added that the people of Haworth, when
they saw in print Mrs. G ask ell's exaggerated and
erroneous statements, loudly expressed their dis-
approbation. Mr. Wood, late churchwarden of
Haworth, also denied the stories of the cutting
up of Mrs. Bronte's dress, and the other charges
just referred to.

The truth about Mr. Bronte appears to be this :
that though, like Mr. Helstone — many of the
traits of whose character were derived from that

52 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

of the incumbent of Haworth — be might have
missed his vocation, like him he was ' not dia-
bolical at all,' and that, like him, also, ' he was a
conscientious, hard-headed, hard-handed, braver
stern, implacable, faithful little man : a man al-
most without sympathy, ungentle, prejudiced,
and rigid : but a man true to principle — honour-
able, sagacious, and sincere.' Possibly we should
not be wholly mistaken in saying that, like the
parson in ' Shirley,' Nature never intended him
' to make a very good husband, especially to a
quiet wife.' He lacked the fine sympathy and
delicate perception that would have enabled
him to make his family entirely happy ; and
when brooding over his politics, his pamphlets,
and his sermons, like Mr. fielstone, he probably
locked ' his liveliness in his book-case and study-
desk.' Yet Mr. Helstone is neither brutal nor
insane, ' neither tyrannical nor hypocritical,' but
' simply a man who is rather liberal than good-
natured, rather brilliant than genial, rather
scrupulously equitable than truly just — if you
can understand such superfine distinctions T

It would not have been necessary, in this
work, to defend at such length the character of

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. 53

the Rev. Patrick Bronte, had it not happened,
unfortunately, that recent works, which have
treated admirably of the writings of his daugh-
ters, have also acquiesced in, and to a great
extent reiterated, the serious charges made
against him. Moreover, it can never be a use-
less thing to retrieve a character which has been
thoughtlessly taken away. This defence has
now been made, and it may be hoped that the
* six motherless children ' had a more amiable
and affectionate father than is generally sup-
posed, and that he paid careful and anxious
attention to their bringing-up and to their
education. Indeed, of this there need be no
doubt. The death of his wife had placed them
in his hands, he being their only support on
earth, and it surely is not too much to say that
he knew his duty, and did it well, as the lives of
his children prove, on the ground of natural
affection, and, perhaps, of higher motives also.

The following extract from a letter written
by Mr. Bronte a few years later, in reference
to scientific knowledge, is sufficiently charac-
teristic. He says : ' In this age of innovation
and scepticism, it is the incumbent duty of

54 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

every man of an enlarged and pious mind to
promote, to the utmost extent of his abilities,
every movement in the variegated, complex
system of human affairs, which may have either
a direct, indirect, or collateral tendency to purify
and expand the naturally polluted and circum-
scribed mind of fallen nature, and to raise it to
that elevation which the Scriptures require, as
well as the best interests of humanity.'

Upon the death of his wife, Mr. Bronte felt
the need of some one to superintend the affairs
of his household, and assist him in this import-
ant charge of the bringing-up of his children ;
and so, towards the end of the year 1822, an
elder sister of the deceased lady, Miss Elizabeth
Branwell of Penzance, came to reside with him.
She is represented to have been, in personal
appearance, of low and slight proportions ; prim
and starched in her attire, which was, when
prepared for the reception of visitors, invariably
of silk ; and she wore, according to the fashion
of the time, a frontal of auburn curls, grace-
fully overshadowing her forehead. She took
occasionally, through habit, a pinch from her
gold snuff-box, which she had always at hand.

THE REV. PATRICK BRONTE. 55

When she had taken up her residence at bleak,
wild, and barren Haworth, she is said to have
sighed for the flower-decked meads of sunny
Peuzance, her native place. Miss Branwell's
affectionate regard for her dead sister's chil-
dren caused her to take deep interest in every-
thing relating to them, their health, the comfort
and cleanliness of their home, and the sedulous
culture of their minds. In the management of
of Mr. Bronte's household she was materially
assisted by the faithful and trustworthy Tabby,
who, in 1825, was added to the family as a
domestic servant. By a long and faithful ser-
vice of some thirty years in the Bronte family,
Tabby gained the respect and confidence of
the household. She had been born and nurtured
in the chapelry of Haworth, at a time when
mills and machinery were not, when railways
had not made the inhabitants of the hills and
valleys familiar with the cities and towns of
England; and, moreover, before the ancient
dialect, so interesting philologically to the
readers of King Alfred's translations of Oro-
sius and Bede, and the like, came to be con-
sidered rude, vulgar, and barbarous. Tabby

56 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

used the dialect rightly, without any attempt
to improve on the language of her childhood
and of her fathers; and she was original and
truthful in this, as in all her ways. It was
from Tabby, principally, that the youthful Brontes
gained the familiarity with the Yorkshire Doric,
which they afterwards reproduced with such
accuracy in ' Shirley,' * Wuthering Heights,' and
others of their writings.

57

CHAPTER IV.

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE BRONTE SISTERS.

Girlhood — Gravity of Character — Charlotte's Description
of the Elf -land of Childhood — The Still and Solemn
Moors of Ilaworth influence their Writings — The
Present of Toys — The Plays which they Acted —
Mr. Bronte on a Supposed Earthquake — The Evi-
dence of his Care for his Children — Grammar School
at Haworth — His Children under the Tuition of the
Master — The Character of the School — Cowan-Bridge
School — Charlotte's View of Mr. Carus Wilson's
Management — Deaths of Maria and Elizabeth.

THE childhood of the Brontes in the parsonage
of Haworth has been pictured to us as a very
strange one indeed. We have seen them de-
prived in their early youth of that maternal
care which they required so much, and left in
the hands of a father unfamiliar with such a
charge, who was filled with Spartan ideas of
discipline, and with theories of education above
and beyond the capacity of childhood. There

58 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

was probably little room in the house of Mr.
Bronte for gaiety and amusement, very little
tolerance for pretty dress, or home beauty, and
small comprehension of childish needs. Rigid
formality, silent chambers, staid attire, frugal
fare, and secluded lives fell to the lot of these
thoughtful and gifted children. It was no
wonder that they grew up ' grave and silent
beyond their years ;' that, when infantine re-
laxation failed them, they betook themselves to
reading newspapers, and debating the merits of
Hannibal and Cassar, of Buonaparte and Wel-
lington ; or that, when they were deprived of
the company of the village children by the
' Quis ego et quis tu ?' which was forced too
early upon them, they fled for silent companion-
ship with the moors. Yet this childhood, stern
and grim though it was, where we look in vain
for the beautiful simplicity and sunny gladness
which should ever distinguish the features of
youth, had a beauty and a joy of its own ;
and it had a merit also. Charlotte Bronte
herself has left us one of the most beautiful
pictures which can be found in English litera-
ture of the pleasures of childhood, that elf-land

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 59

which is passed before the shores of Reality-
have arisen in front ; when they stand afar off,
so blue, soft, and gentle that we long to reach
them ; when we ' catch glimpses of silver lines,
and imagine the roll of living waters,' heedless
of * many a wilderness, and often of the flood of
Death, or some stream of sorrow as cold and
almost as black as Death ' that must be crossed
ere true bliss can be tasted. So the Brontes,
trooping abroad on the moors, revelling in the
freedom of Nature, while their faculties expand-
ed to the noblest ends, lived also in the heroic
world of childhood, ' its inhabitants half-divine
or semi-demon ; its scenes dream-scenes ; darker
woods and stranger hills ; brighter skies, more
dangerous waters ; sweeter flowers, more tempt-
ing fruits ; wider plains ; drearier deserts ; sun-
nier fields than are found in Nature.' Can we
doubt that the Bronte children, endowed, as the
world was afterwards to know, with keener
perceptions, more exalted sympathies, and nobler
gifts than other children, enjoyed these things
more than others could? And the merit of
their childhood was this : that it impressed them
in the strongest form with the influence of

•60 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

locality, with the boundless expanse of the
moors, and with the weird and rugged charac-
ter of the people amongst whom they lived,
and whom they afterwards drew so well. Such
influences as these are a quality more or less
traceable in the works of every author, but they
are very apparent in the productions of the
Brontes. These writers could not have pro-
duced ' Jane Eyre,' ' Shirley,' and ' Wuthering
Heights ' without them, any more than Gold-
smith could have written his ' Vicar of Wake-
field' if his early years had not been passed in
the pleasant village of Lissey. The moors,
clothed with purple heather and golden gorse
,in billowy waves, were certainly all in all to
Emily Bronte ; and she and her sisters, and the
youthful Branwell with his ready admiration
and brilliant fancy, escorted by Tabby, enjoyed
to the full the free atmosphere of the heights
around Haworth. The rushing sound of their
own waterfall, and the shrill cries of the grouse,
which flew up as they came along, were to
them friendly voices of the opening life of Nature
whose potent influence inspired them so well.

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 61

Of other companionship in their early years
they had hardly any; and being unable to
associate much with children of their own age
and condition, or to play with their young and
immediate neighbours in childish games, Mr.
Bronte's son and daughters grew up amongst
their elders with heads older than their years,
and spoke with a knowledge that might have
sprung from actual experience of men and
manners. They were, in fact, ' old-fashioned
children.' Their extraordinary cleverness was
soon observed, and the servants were always on
their guard lest any of their remarks might be
repeated by the children. Notwithstanding
this, the little Brontes were children still, and
and took pleasure in the things of childhood.
Up-grown men will not whip a top on the
causeways, nor trundle a hoop through the
streets, nor play at ' hide-and-seek ' at dusk as
of yore ; but the Bronte children in their youth-
ful days did all these things, and they entered
at times with ardour, despite their precocious
gravity, into the simple joys and amusements of
childhood, as is testified by the eager delight

•62 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

with -which they regarded the presents of the
toys they received.

The earliest notice we have of Branwell
Bronte is that Charlotte remembered having
seen her mother playing with him during one
golden sunset in the parlour of the parsonage at
Haworth. Later, we are informed that Mr.
Bronte brought from Leeds on one occasion a
box of wooden soldiers for him. The children
were in bed, but the ' next morning,' says
Charlotte, in one of her juvenile manuscripts,
* Branwell came to our door with a box of
soldiers. Emily and I jumped out of bed, and I
snatched up one and exclaimed, " This is the
Duke of Wellington ! This shall be the duke !"
When I had said this, Emily likewise took up
one and said it should be hers ; when Anne
came down she said one should be hers. Mine
was the prettiest of the whole, and the tallest,
and the most perfect in every part. Emily's
was a grave-looking fellow, and we called him
" Gravey." Anne's was a queer little thing much
like herself, and we called him " Waiting-boy."
Branwell chose his, and called him "Buona-
parte."' So Charlotte relates these glad iuci-

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 63

dents of their childhood with pleasure, and
places on record the joy they inspired.

Mr. Bronte says, ' When mere children, as
soon as they could read and write, Charlotte
and her brother and sisters used to invent and
act little plays of their own, in which the Duke
of Wellington, my daughter Charlotte's hero,
was sure to come off conqueror ; when a dispute
would not infrequently arise amongst them re-
garding the comparative merits of Buonaparte,
Hannibal, and Caesar.'

In acting their early plays, they performed
them with childish glee, and did not fail at times
to ' tear a passion to tatters.' They observed
that Tabby did not approve of such extraordi-
nary proceedings; but on one occasion, with
increased energy of action and voice, they so
wrought on her fears that she retreated to her
nephew's house, and, as soon as she could regain
her breath, she exclaimed, ' William ! yah muu
gooa up to Mr. Bronte's, for aw'm sure yon chil-
der's all gooin mad, and aw darn't stop 'ith
hause ony longer wi' 'em ; an' aw'll stay here
woll yah come back!' When the nephew
reached the parsonage, ' the childer set up a

64 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

great crack o' laughin',' at the wonderful joke
they had perpetrated on faithful Tabby.

Mr. Bronte — like other parents and friends of
precocious and gifted children, who, in after-
life have become celebrated in religion, art,
poetry, literature, politics, or war, and who have
given out in childhood tokens of brilliant and
sterling gifts which have been recorded in their
biographies — saw in his own children evidences
of that mental power, fervid imagination, and
superior faculty of language and expression,
which were developed in them in after-years.
He often fancied that great powers lay in his
children, and it cannot be doubted that he
sometimes looked forward to and hoped for a
brilliant future for his offspring. It was this
hope that cheered him, and he gave to Mrs.
Gaskell, for publication, all the evidences of
genius in his son and daughters, as children,
Avhich he could remember. But, from the in-
formation he imparted to that writer, we can
scarcely gather, I fear, sufficient to justify the
inference he drew, or appears to have drawn,
for the particulars given border too much on
the trivial and unimportant. Perhaps Mr.

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 65

Bronte failed to remember the special evi-
deuces he had observed of what he intended
to convey at the actual moment of communi-
cation. Be this as it may, no doubt remained
on his mind that genius was apparent in his
children above and apart from their eager read-
ing of magazines and newspapers, nor that other
, schemes and objects occupied their thoughts
than the interests and contentions of the poli-
tical parties of the hour.

' When my children were very young/ says
Mr. Bronte, — ' when, as far as I can remember,
the oldest was about ten years of age, and the
youngest about four, — thinking that they knew
more than I had yet discovered, in order to
make them speak with less timidity, I deemed
that, if they were put under a sort of cover, I
might gain my end ; and, happening to have a
mask in the house, I told them all to stand and
speak boldly from under cover of the mask. I
began with the youngest (Anne, afterwards
Acton Bell), and asked what a child like her
most wanted ; she answered, " Age and ex-
perience." I asked the next (Emily, afterwards
Ellis Bell) what I had best do with her brother
VOL. 1. F

66 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Branwell, who was sometimes a naughty boy ;
she answered, " Reason with him, and, when he
won't listen to reason, whip him.1' I asked
Branwell what was the best way of knowing
the difference between the intellects of man
and woman ; he answered, " By considering the
difference between them as to their bodies." '
In answer to a question as to which were the
two best books, Charlotte said that ' the Bible,'
and after it the ' Book of Nature,' were the
best. Mr. Bronte then asked the next daughter,
' What is the best mode of education for a
woman ;' she answered, ' That which would
make her rule her house well.' He then asked
the eldest, Maria, ' What is the best mode of
spending time ;' she answered, ' By laying it
out in preparation for a happy eternity.' He
says he may not have given the exact words,
but they were nearly so, and they had made a
lasting impression on his memory.1

But the intellectual pabulum of Mr. Bronte's
children, for some time, consisted, for the most
part, as we are told, of magazines and news-
papers. As these took the place of toy-books

1 Mrs. Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iii.

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. G7

and fairy tales, their young minds were attracted
by such moral subjects and entertaining stories
as were treated of in the serials of the day ; and
their attention was also largely engaged in the
political questions which were then debated in
the Houses of Parliament. Imbibing from their
father their religious and political views and
opinions, they became strong partizans and sup-
porters of the leading Conservatives in the House
of Lords and the House of Commons. They had
often heard conversations between their father
and aunt 011 these subjects ; they listened with
interested attention, and obtained information aa
to the outer world and its pursuits. By their
surroundings their minds were soon raised above
the thoughts, desires, and interests of childhood
in general; and, under the circumstances, though
it may seem odd, it is not extraordinary that
wooden soldiers should thus be made, by these
talented children, to represent the two great
opposing warriors of the present age.

In addition to the general bringing-up of his
children at home, and the formal tasks which
Mr. Bronte set them, magazines and other pub-
lications were thrown about, and Maria, being

F2

68 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

the eldest, was wont to read the newspapers
when she was less than nine years old, and
reported matters of home and foreign interest,
as well as those relating to the public characters
and current affairs of the day, to her young
brother and sisters. Indeed, so earnest was her
relevancy on such occasions in these unchildish
and grave questions, that she could talk upon
them with discriminating intelligence to her
father, whose interest in his children thus grew,
as their faculties expanded. The young Brontes,
though still in childhood's years, were soon no
longer children in intellect : they touched, in
fact, the ' Shores of Reality' at an earlier age
than most children ; and, though interested
sometimes, perhaps momentarily, in trivial
matters, they seem to have turned almost every-
thing to literary account. Even Branwell's toys,
which they all received so gleefully, gave rise to
the ' Young Men's Play.'

Mr. Bronte, though interested deeply in the
gradual development of the mental gifts of his
children, did not fail, after his wife's death, to
promote and protect their health, and he availed
himself of the means which the chapelry of

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 69

Haworth afforded. For this object he encouraged
recreation on the moors at suitable times, and
subjected the young members of his family to
the pure and exhilarating breeze that, redolent
of heather, breathed over them from the sea,
during the summer and autumnal months.

, On Tuesday, September the 2nd, 1824, a
severe thunderstorm, and an almost unprece-
dented downfall of rain which resembled, in
volume, a waterspout, caused the irruption of
an immense bog, at Crow Hill, an elevation,
between Keighley and Colne, and about one
thousand feet above the sea-level. The mud,
mingled with stones, many of large size, rolled
down a precipitous and rugged clough that
descended from it. Reaching the hamlet of
Pondens, the torrent expanded and overspread
the corn-fields adjoining to the depth of several
feet, with many other devastating consequences.
Mr. Bronte regarded this as the effect of an
earthquake, and he sent a communication to the
'Leeds Mercury,' in which he says : ' At the time
of the irruption, the clouds were copper-coloured,
gloomy, and lowering, the atmosphere was
strongly electrified, and unusually close.' In

70 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

the same month — on Sunday, September 12th,
1824 — he preached a sermon on the subject, in
Ha worth Church, in which he informed his
hearers that, the day of disaster being exceed-
ingly fine, he had sent his little children, who-
were indisposed, accompanied by the servants,
to take an airing on the common, and, as they
stayed rather longer than he expected, he went
to an upper chamber to look out for their return.
The heavens over the moors were blackening
fast ; he heard the muttering of distant thunder,
and saw the frequent flashes of lightning.
Though, ten minutes before, there was scarcely
a breath of air stirring, the gale freshened rapidly
and carried along with it clouds of dust and
stubble. ' My little family,' he continued, ; had
escaped to a place of shelter, but I did not know
it.' These were Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and
Anne. Their sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, were
then at Cowan Bridge.

When Mr. Bronte accepted the living of
Haworth, he had found existing there a Gram-
mar School, and he took in it a special and per-
sonal interest, for it was an old institution, was
endowed, and had recently been renovated. It

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 71

was his policy to show that he took an interest
in it ; so that, by adding his support to that of
the trustees, he might possibly confirm their
favourable opinion of him, and secure their con-
tinued good feeling. This was essential at the
time, as any appearance of coldness on his part
towards their cherished foundation would have
perhaps evoked a spirit akin to that which
caused the compulsory resignation of Mr. Red-
head, or have induced an estrangement between
himself and the trustees. It is stated, with re-
gard to this Grammar School, that one Christo-
pher Scott by will, dated the 4th of October,
loth of Charles 1., gave a school-house which he
had built adjoining the church-way ; and or-
dained that there should be a school-master
who should be a graduate at least, a bachelor,
if not a master of arts, and who should teach
Greek and Latin. The school had been en-
larged in 1818, when the Bronte family were
still at Thornton, and a new house was then
erected for the master by the trustees.

As this foundation was designed to provide a
classical education for its students, it was one
to which the better classes in the neighbourhood

72 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

need not have hesitated to entrust their children
for superior instruction than could possibly be
had in the ordinary schools of the district. The
school was situated close to the parsonage, a
lane only intervening, and it was commodious
and lightsome. But Mr. Bronte, on his arrival,
found that it had not for some time been main-
tained as a regular Grammar School : that there
was little or no demand for the advantages of a
classical education for their children among the
inhabitants of the chapelry.1 Yet the master
who received the appointment from the trustees
at the Midsummer of 1826, although not even a
graduate of either of the universities, was stated
to be competent to teach Latin, and was a man
of considerable attainments, instructing both
boys and girls in every essential branch of
knowledge. In this the tutor differed nothing
from some of his immediate predecessors. But,
though education of this sort was thus imme-
diately at hand, Mr. Bronte does not appear to
have availed himself of it for his daughters, or
his son Branwell, for any great length of time.
Mrs. Gaskell says, indeed, that their regular tasks
1 James's ' History of Bradford,' p. 358.

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 73

were given by himself. Mr. Bronte, however,
probably heard his children repeat early lessons
set by the master in order to ascertain with what
facility they had learned them. At a later date,
Branwell and his sisters took a larger interest in
the Grammar School, and they became active
and willing teachers in the Sunday-school,
which was connected with it. They were, in-
deed, often seen, as is yet remembered, in the
processions of the scholars.

Although Mr. Bronte had taken vigilant and
affectionate care to promote the health of his
children, he was well aware that though he could
strengthen their constitutions in some sort, deli-
cate by nature as they were, he could not ward
off with certainty the diseases and sufferings
incident to childhood, from which his chil-
dren were, indeed, unfortunately destined to
suffer. Solicitude therefore came upon the
parsonage when Maria and Elizabeth were
attacked by measles and whooping-cough. Re-
covering partially from these attacks, it was
thought desirable to send them — perhaps partly
for change of air — to a school which had some-
what recently been established at Cowan Bridge,

74 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

a hamlet on the coach-road between Leeds and
Kendal, which was easily reached from Haworth,
as the coach passed daily. This school was
especially established for the board and educa-
tion of the daughters of such clegymen of the
Establishment as required it. 'It was begun, as
we know from Mrs. Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte
Bronte,' by the Rev. William Carus Wilson ; and
we are aware also that severe and unqualified
censures were passed upon its situation and
management by the author of 'Jane Eyre,' in
after years, under the description of Lowood, and
that the Ellen Burns of the story was no other
than Maria Bronte. Readers of ' Jane Eyre *
became indignant, and the Cowan Bridge School
was execrated, denounced, and condemned by
the public, to the utter distress and pain of its
founder and patron.

In reference to this affair, Charlotte indeed
said to her future biographer that ' she should
not have written what she did of Lowood in
" Jane Eyre " if she had thought the place would
have been so immediately identified with Cowan
Bridge, although there was not a word in her
account of the institution but what was true at

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 75

the time when she knew it. She also said that
she had not considered it necessary in a work of
fiction to state every particular with the imparti-
ality that might be required in a court of justice,
nor to seek out motives, and make allowances
for human failings, as she might have done, if
dispassionately analyzing the conduct of those
who had the superintendence of the institution.'
Mrs. Gaskell believes Charlotte ' herself would
have been glad of an opportunity to correct the
over strong impression which was made upon
the public mind by her vivid picture, though
even she, suffering her whole life long both in
heart and body from the consequences of what
happened there, might have been apt, to the
last, to take her deep belief in facts for the facts
themselves — her conception of truth for the
absolute truth.'1

But it is only just to Mr. Wilson to say that
the low situation of the premises fixed upon,
the arrangement of the school-buildings, and
the inefficient management of the domestic de-
partment, do not appear to have been so fatal
to the boarders, even if we admit all the alleged
1 Gaskell's ' Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iv.

76 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

severities of the regimen. For, when a low
fever, or influenza cold, which was not regarded
by Dr. Batty as ' either alarming or dangerous,'
broke out at the school, and some forty of the
pupils fell more or less under its influence, none
died of it at Cowan Bridge, and only one, Mrs.
Gaskell informs us, from after consequences at
home ; and, though delicate, the Bronte chil-
dren entirely escaped the attack. Mrs. Gaskell
has, however, entered at considerable length
into a detailed account of the alleged misman-
agement of the school, the severities exercised
over the pupils — especially by one of the re-
sponsible tutors, « Miss Scatcherd,' — the cooking
and insufficiency of food, the general neglect
of sanitary regulations in the domestic depart-
ment, and the utter unfitness of the place itself
for the continued health and comfort of the
inmates. But the biographer of Charlotte
Bronte in after-years considerably modified the
severe strictures which her heroine had thought
fit to describe in 'Jane Eyre,' — an admir-
able work of fiction, though not necessarily
one of fact — and she says, speaking of Char-
lotte's account of the Cowan Bridge School :

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 77

' The pictures, ideas, and conceptions of char-
acter received into the mind of the child of
eight years old were destined to be reproduced
in fiery words a quarter of a century afterwards.
She saw but one side of Mr. Wilson's character;
and many of those Avho knew him at the time
assure me of the fidelity with which this is
represented, while at the same time they regret
that the delineation should have obliterated, as
it were, nearly all that was noble and conscien-
tious.' It appears also that Mr. Wilson had
' grand and fine qualities ' — which were left
unnoticed by Charlotte — of which the bio-
grapher had received ' abundant evidence.'1 Of
these Mr. Bronte seems to have been aware, as
Charlotte and Emily were sent back to Cowan
Bridge after the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth.
Mrs. Gaskell wonders Charlotte did not remon-
strate against her father's decision to send her
and Emily back to the place, knowing, as we
may suppose she did, of the alleged inflic-
tion which her dead sisters had endured at the
very school to which she and Emily were re-
turning. Surely such a very miserable state of
1 Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iv.

78 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

things as is described in ' Jane Eyre ' could not
nave existed at the time to impress on Char-
lotte's mind such a dread as we are asked to
believe she had, and Mr. Bronte could not be
aware that any serious objections to the school
existed. Indeed, the true condition of the
institution at the period is apparent from the
testimony of the noble and benevolent Miss
Temple of ' Jane Eyre,' whose husband thus
writes : ' Often have I heard my late dear wife
F.peak of her sojourn at Cowan Bridge ; always
in terms of admiration of Mr. Carus Wilson, his
parental love to his pupils, and their love for
him ; of the food and general treatment, in
terms of approval. I have heard her allude to
an unfortunate cook who used at times to spoil
the porridge, but who, she said, was soon
dismissed.'

While at Cowan Bridge, Maria's health had
suddenly given way, and alarming symptoms
declared themselves. Mr. Bronte was sent for.
He had known nothing of her illness, and was
terribly shocked when he saw her. He ascended
the Leeds coach with his dying child. Mrs.
Gaskell says, 'the girls crowded out into the

THE GIRLHOOD OF THE SISTERS. 79

road to follow her with their eyes, over the
bridge, past the cottages, and then out of sight
for ever.'

The poignancy of Mr. Bronte's grief on this
occasion was profound, and all but insupport-
able. Here was his first-born, the early joy of
his home at Hartshead, the intelligent and bril-
liantly gifted companion of the first few years
of his widowed life — dying before him! She,
whose innocent and thoughtful converse had
cheered his solitary moments, and whose merry
laugh had often made the hearth glad, whose
affectionate care of her little brother and sisters,
disinterested as it was incessant, supplied for
them the offices of their deceased mother — was
fading from his sight ! Arriving at Haworth,
they were received with sincere and tearful
sympathy by Miss Branwell, and with childish
alarm and dread by Branwell and Anne. Every
care which affection could provide was bestowed
on the sinking child, but she died, a few days
after her arrival, on May 6, 1825.

Elizabeth, too, struck down with the same
fatal disease, came home to die of consumption
on June 15 in the same year, but a month and

80 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

a few days after her sister. These sorrowful
events were never forgotten by Branwell, and
the impressions made upon his mind by the
deaths and funeral rites he had witnessed be-
came the theme of some of his later and more
mournful effusions.

The early recollection of Maria at Cowan
Bridge was that she was delicate, and unusually
clever and thoughtful for her age. Of Elizabeth
Miss Temple writes: 'The second, Elizabeth, is
the only one of the family of whom I have a vivid
recollection, from her meeting with a somewhat
alarming accident ; in consequence of which I
had her for some days and nights in my bed-
room, not only for the sake of greater quiet, but
that I might watch over her myself .... Of
the two younger ones (if two there were) I have
very slight recollections, save that one, a darling
child under five years of age, was quite the pet
nursling of the school.'

' This last,' says Mrs. Gaskell, ' would be
Emily. Charlotte was considered the most
talkative of the sisters— a " bright, clever little
child." ''

1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. iv.

81

CHAPTER V.

BRANWELL'S BOYHOOD.

Reunion of the Bronte Family — Branwell is the supposed
Prototype of Victor Crimsworth — That Character
not a complete Portrait of Branwell — His Friendships
— His Visit to the Keighley Feast — Its Effect 011
Branwell's Nerves — The Wrestle — The Lost Spec-
tacles— Fear of his Father's Displeasure — Mrs. Gas-
kell's Story of the ' Black Bull ' Incident Questioned
— Miss Branwell and her Nephew.

UPON the return of Charlotte and Emily from
Cowan Bridge, the youthful Brontes, whom
death had spared, were united again ; and, for
some years more, followed their pursuits together,
until Charlotte went to school at Roe Head in
1831. Branwell was the constant companion
of his sisters during these childish years, and
they all looked upon him with pride and affec-
tion. Charlotte, in those days, was a sympathetic
VOL. I. G

82 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

friend to him ; and, in his later years, he felt it a
source of deep regret that she was somewhat
estranged. But the gentle Emily — after the
death of Maria — was his chief companion, and a
warm affection never lost its ardour between
them. The sisters were quick to perceive the
Promethean spark that burned in their brother,
and they looked upon Branwell, as indeed did
all who knew him, as their own superior in
mental gifts. In his childhood even, Branwell
Bronte showed great aptitude for acquiring
knowledge, and his perceptive powers were
very marked. He was, too, gifted with a
sprightly disposition, tinged at times with great
melancholy, but he acquired early a lively and
fascinating address. There was a fiery ardour
and eagerness in his manner which told of his
abundant animal spirits, and he entered with
avidity into the enjoyments of the life that lay
before him. Charlotte, who knew well the
treasures of her brother's opening faculties, his
ability, his learning, and his affection, saw also
many things that alarmed her in his disposition.
She saw the abnormal and unhealthy flashing
of his intellect, and marked that weakness and

BRANWELI/S BOYHOOD. 83

want of self-control which left Branwell, when
subjected to temptation, a prey to many de-
structive influences, whose effect shall hereafter
be traced. There is reason to believe that
Charlotte pictures this period of Bran well's life in
' The Professor,' where she describes the child-
hood of Victor Crimsworth ; and, though the
extract is rather long, it is given here as valu-
able, because it furnishes a full record of the
early powers of Branwell, and of the manner in
which his sister — by the light of subsequent
events — looked upon them and upon his failings,
and it will be seen that towards the latter she is
somewhat inflexible.

* Victor,' she makes William Crimsworth say,
' is as little of «'i pretty child as I am of a hand-
some man .... he is pale and spare, with
large eyes .... His shape is symmetrical
enough, but slight .... I never saw a child
smile less than he does, nor one who knits such
a formidable brow when sitting over a book
that interests him, or while listening to tales of
adventure, peril, or wonder .... But, though
still, he is not unhappy — though serious, not
morose ; he has a susceptibility to pleasurable

G 2

84 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

sensations almost too keen, for it amounts to
enthusiasm .... When he could read, he
became a glutton of books, and is so still. His
toys have been few, and he has never wanted
more. For those he possesses he seems to have
contracted a partiality amounting to affection ;
this feeling, directed towards one or two living
animals of the house, strengthens almost to a
passion .... I saw in the soil of his heart
healthy and swelling germs of compassion,
affection, fidelity. I discovered in the garden
of his intellect a rich growth of wholesome
principles — reason, justice, moral courage, pro-
mised, if not blighted, a fertile bearing . . . She
(his mother) sees, as I also see, a something in
Victor's temper — a kind of electrical ardour and
power — which emits, now and then, ominous
sparks ; llunsden calls it his spirit, and says it
should not be curbed. I call it the leaven of
the offending Adam, and consider that it should
be, if not tvhipped out of him, at least soundly
disciplined ; and that he will be cheap of any
amount of either bodily or mental suffering which
will ground him radically in the art of self-
control. Frances (his mother) gives this some-

BRAXWELI/S BOYHOOD. 85

tldng in her son's marked character no name ;
but when it appears in the grinding of his teeth,
in the glittering of his eye, in the fierce revolt
of feeling against disappointment, mischance,
sudden sorrow, or supposed injustice, she folds
him to her breast, or takes him to walk with her
alone in the wood ; then she reasons with him
like any philosopher, and to reason Victor is ever
accessible ; then she looks at him with eyes of
love, and by love Victor can be infallibly subju-
gated. But will reason or love be the weapons
with which in future the world will meet his
violence ? Oh, no ! for that flash in his black eye
— for that cloud on his bony brow — for that com-
pression of his statuesque lips, the lad will some
day get blows instead of blandishments, kicks
instead of kisses ; then for the fit of mute fury
which will sicken the body and madden his soul ;
then for the ordeal of merited and salutary
suffering out of which he will come (1 trust) a
wiser and a better man.'

The natural adornments and defects of Bran-
well's mind in boyhood, which may to some
extent be traced in Charlotte's picture of Victor
Orimsworth, in ' The Professor,' must not be

86 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

regarded otherwise than as possessing a general
resemblance to those which are found in that
character. Physically, Branwell and Crimsworth
were dissimilar, though mentally there is a por-
traiture ; but even here, Charlotte, having him
in her mind when she sketched the character of
Victor, exaggerated therein, as she had done in
other instances, the actual defects of her brother.
It is true, nevertheless, that those who knew
Branwell Bronte in early life could see in him
the original of Victor Crimsworth.

In the following pages the greatness of Bran-
well's genius may be observed, — great, though
marred by the errors and misfortunes of his life,
— as well as by the sorrows which his impulsive,
kindly, and affectionate nature brought upon
himself, sorrows thus sadly set forth by his sister
as the outcome of his passions, and described
by her as the penalty of his future years.

In Branwell Bronte, the ' leaven of the offend-
ing Adam' might now and then certainly be
observed, but it was largely modified by the
ameliorating influences of his home ; and, al-
though, from the failings common to humanity,
the children of Mr. Brontii could not be free, his

BRAXWELI/S BOYHOOD. 87

early waywardness and petulance were, by the
influence of sex, more forcibly expressed than
such failings could be in his sisters. Between
the children of Mr. Bronte, however, there existed
even more than the ordinary affections of child-
hood. At this period of their lives, they were
ignorant of the wiles of corrupt human nature,
and Branwell, with all the lightsome exuberance
of his boyhood, returned without stint the ardent
and deep affection of his sisters. But, when a
few years had rolled on, he awoke to the sunny
morning of youth ; and, in the absence of a
brother, sought companionship with certain
youths of Haworth, and made them playmates.
Amongst them was one, the brother of some
friends of his sisters, who became to him a per-
sonal associate, and it was with this companion
that he was wont to sport on the moors, across
the meadows, and, with joyous laugh, along the
streets of the village.

The survivor of these two fiiends gives me an
incident that occurred at the time of the annual
Feast at Keighley, which the youths visited.
The town was, as is usual on such occasions,
crowded with booths and shows, and various

88 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

places of entertain ment. Players and riders, —
men and women, — clothed in gay raiments, ren-
dered brilliant with spangles, paced backwards
and forwards along their platforms to the sound
of drums, organs, and Pandean pipes, cymbals,
tambourines, and castanets. There were stalls,
too, weighted with nuts and various confection-
aries, and there were also rockiug-boats and
merry-go-rounds, with other amusements.

As the evening advanced, and the shows were
lighted up, Branwell's excitement, hilarity, and
extravagance knew no bounds : he would see
everything and try everything. Into a rocking-
boat he and his friend gaily stepped. The rise
of the boat, when it reached its full height, gave
Branwell a pleasant view of the fair beneath ;
but, when it descended, he screamed out at the
top of his voice, ' Oh ! my nerves ! my nerves !
Oh ! my nerves !' On each descent, every nerve
thrilled, tingled, and vibrated with overwhelm-
ing effect through the overwrought and delicate
frame of the boy. Leaving the fair, the two
proceeded homeward ; and, reaching a country
spot, near a cottage standing among a thicket
of trees, Branwell, still full of exuberant life,

BRANWELL'S BOYHOOD. 89

proposed a wrestle with his companion. They
engaged in a struggle, when Branwell was
overthrown. It was not uiitil reaching the vil-
lage, and seeing the lights in the windows, with
considerably enlarged rays, that he became
aware he had lost his spectacles, — for Branwell
was, like his sister Charlotte, very near-sighted.
This was, indeed, no little trouble to him, as he
was in great fear lest his father should notice
his being without them, and institute unpleasant
inquiries as to what had become of them. He
told his fears to his companion ; but, after a
sleepless night for both, Branwell's friend was
early on the spot in search of the missing specta-
cles, when the woman living in the cottage
close by, seeing a youth looking about, came
to him, and, learning for what he sought,
brought out the glasses which she had picked

up from the ground just before he came. M ,

glad of the discovery, hastened to the parsonage,
which he reached to find Branwell astir, who
was overjoyed on receiving the missing specta-
cles, as the danger of his father's displeasure
was avoided.

Mrs. Gaskell has written an account of the

yO THE BRONTE FAMILY.

brother of the Bronte sisters, but from what
source I am unable to ascertain. After giving
him credit for those abilities in his boyhood of
which evidence is given in these pages, she
says that : ' Popular admiration was sweet to
him, and this led to his presence being sought at
Arvills, and all the great village gatherings,
for the Yorkshiremen have a keen relish for
intellect ; and it likewise procured him the un-
desirable distinction of having his company re-
commended by the landlord of the " Black Bull "
to any chance traveller who might happen to
feel solitary or dull over his liquor. " Do you
want some one to help you with your bottle,
sir ? If you do, I'll send up for Patrick " (so the
villagers called him to the day of his death,
though, in his own family, he was always Bran-
well). And, while the messenger went, the laud-
lord entertained his guest with accounts of the
wonderful talents of the boy, whose precocious
cleverness and great conversational powers were
the pride of the village.' This account of the
landlord being accustomed to send to the par-
sonage for Branwell to come down to the ' Bull '
at Haworth on these occasions is denied by

BRAN WELL'S BOYHOOD. 91

those who knew Bramvell at the time, as well
as by the landlord. The latter always said that
he never ventured to do anything of the kind.
It would have been a vulgar liberty, and an
unpardonable offence to the inmates of the par-
sonage had he done so. Besides, the message
would, in all probability, have been delivered
to a servant, or perhaps to Mr. Bronte himself,
or to one of his daughters, and Branwell would
have been forbidden, for the credit of the family,
to lend himself for such a purpose at the public-
house below.

Branwell in these early days was not only the
beloved of the household, but the special favour-
ite of his aunt. This good lady was proud of
her family and name, a name which her
nephew bore to her infinite satisfaction, so that
his sometimes rough and noisy merriment made
his aunt glad, rather than grieved, because it
was the true indication of health of mind and
body. She easily pardoned his boyish defects :
and at times, as she parted his auburn hair, she
looked in his face with fondness and affection,
giving him moral advice, consistent with his age,
and showing him how, by sedulously cultivating

$2 THE BRONTE. FAMILY.

the abilities with which God had blessed him,
he would attain an excellent position in the
world. It was this gentle and disinterested
guide that Providence had placed in the stead
of his mother, to impart to her son the good
maxims she would herself have given him.

93

CHAPTER VI.

THE LITERARY TASTES OF THE CHILDREN.

The youthful Compositions of the Brontes — Their Charac-
ter— Branwell's Share in them — ' The Secret,' a Frag-
ment— The Reading of the Bronte Children — Bran-
well's Character at this Period.

MR. BRONTK, perhaps, made use of a slight hyper-
bole when he said that, as soon as they could read
and write, Charlotte and her brother and sisters
used to invent and act little plays of their own ;
but it is certain that, at an early period of their
lives, they took pleasure and pride in seeing their
thoughts put down in the manifest form of
written words. Charlotte, indeed, gives a list of
the juvenile works she had composed. They
filled twenty-two volumes, and consisted of
Tales, Adventures, Lives, Meditations, Stories,
Poems, Songs, &c. Without repeating all the-

94 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

titles which Mrs. Gaskell and others have pub-
lished, it may be said that the productions mani-
fested extraordinary ability and industry. Bran-
well, Emily, and Anne partook of the same spirit,
and displayed similar energy according to the
leisure they could command.

Before Charlotte went to Roe Head, in January,
1831, Bran well worked with his sisters in pro-
ducing their monthly magazine, with its youthful
stories.1 Mrs. Gaskell has quoted Charlotte's
introduction to the ' Tales of the Islanders,' one
of these 'Little Magazines,' dated June, 182P,
from which it appears that a remark of Branwell's
led to the composition of the play of that name,
and that he chose the Isle of Man as his territory,
and named John Bull, Astley Cooper, and Leigh
Hunt as the chief men in it. Charlotte gives
the dates of most of their productions. She says :
' Our plays were established, " Young Men,"
June, 1826; "Our Fellows," July, 1827;
"Islanders," December, 1827. These are our
three great plays that are not kept secret.
Emily's and my best plays were established the

1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. v.

THEIR LITERARY TASTES. 95

1st of December, 1827 ; the others March, 1828.
Best plays mean secret plays ; they are very nice
ones. All our plays are very strange ones. Their
nature I need not write on paper, for I think I
shall always remember them. The " Young
Men's" play took its rise from some wooden
soldiers Branwell had ; " Our Fellows" from
"JEsop's Fables;" and the "Islanders" from
several events which happened.' ]

It would be difficult to arrive at a correct
understanding of the literary value of these pro-
ductions of the youthful Brontes, but it would be
interesting to know what kind of assistance
Branwell was able to give in the work, as well
as what was the general merit of these early
compositions. Mrs. Gaskell makes some mention
of Branwell's literary abilities in his youth. It is
certain, from all we know, that his mind was as
much occupied in these matters as his sisters',
and that his ambition corresponded with theirs.
It has, indeed, been placed on record by Mrs.
Gaskell that he was associated with his sisters
in the compilation of their youthful writings.

1 GaskelTs ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap v.

9(3 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

This author says, also, that their youthful occu-
pations were ' mostly of a sedentary and intel-
lectual nature.'1

Among the youthful stories of which Charlotte,
as has been already mentioned, wrote a catalogue
or list, there was one, of which Mrs. Gaskell has
published a fragment in fac-simile, written in a
small, elaborate, and cramped hand — so small,
indeed, as to be of little use to the general
reader. In the 'Life of Charlotte Bronte,' this
was inserted as a specimen of the hand-writing.
It shows truly the literary ability, dramatic skill,
and force of imagination of the children at the
period of their lives of which I speak, and affords
an interesting specimen of the character of these
early works. A few extracts from it may be
given here : —

THE SECRET.
CHAPTER I.

A dead silence had reigned in the Home
Office of Verdopolis for three hours in the morn-
ing of a fine summer's day, interrupted only by
such sounds as the scraping of a pen-knife, the

1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. v.

THEIR LITERARY TASTES. 97

dropping of a ruler, or an occasional cough ; or
whispered now and then some brief mandate,
uttered by the noble first secretary, in his com-
manding tones. At length that sublime person-
age, after completing some score or so of
despatches, addressing a small slightly-built
young gentleman who occupied the chief situa-
tion among the clerks, said :

' Mr. Rymer, will you be good enough to tell
me what o'clock it is ?'

' Certainly, my lord !' was the prompt reply
as, springing from his seat, the ready underling,
instead of consulting his watch like other people,
hastened to the window in order to mark the
sun's situation; having made his observation, he
answered : ' 'Tis twelve precisely, my lord.'

' Very well,' said the marquis. ' You may all
give up then, and see that all your desks are
locked, so that not a scrap of paper is left to litter
the office. Mr. Rymer, I shall expect you to take
care that my directions are fulfilled.' So saying,
he assumed his hat and gloves, and with a stately
tread was approaching the vestibule, when a
slight bustle and whispering among the clerks
arrested his steps.

VOL. I. H

98 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

' What is the matter ?' asked he, turning
round. ' I hope these are not sounds of con-
tention I hear !'

'1— and — ' said a broad, carrotty-locked young
man of a most pugnacious aspect, « but — but —
your lordship has forgotten that — that '

« That what ?' asked the marquis, rather im-
patiently.

'Oh! — merely that this afternoon is a half-
holiday — and — and '

'I understand,' replied his superior, smiling,
4 you need not tax your modesty with further
explanation, Flanagan ; the truth is, I suppose,
you want your usual largess, and I'm obliged to
you for reminding me — will that doT he con-
tinued, as, opening his pocket-book, he took
out a twenty-pound bank bill and laid it on the
nearest desk.

* My lord, you are too generous,' Flanagan
answered ; but the chief secretary laughingly
laid his gloved hand on his lips, and, with a
condescending nod to the other clerks, sprang
down the steps of the portico and strode hastily
away, in order to escape the noisy expressions
of gratitude which now hailed his liberality.

THEIR LITERARY TASTES. 99

On the opposite side of the busy and wide
-street to that on which the splendid Home
Office stands, rises the no less splendid Colonial
Office ; and, just as Arthur, Marquis of Douro,
left the former structure, Edward Stanley Syd-
ney departed from the latter : they met in the
centre of the street.

' Well, Ned,' said my brother, as they shook
hands, ' how are you to-day ? I should think
this bright sun and sky ought to enliven you if
anything can.'

' Why, my dear Douro,' replied Mr. Sydney,
with a faint smile, « such lovely, genial weather
may, and I have no doubt does, elevate the
spirits of the free and healthy ; but for me,
whose mind and body are a continual prey to
all the heaviest cares of public and private life,
it signifies little whether sun cheer or rain damp
the atmosphere.'

' Edward,' replied Arthur, his features at the
same time assuming that disagreeable expres-
sion which my landlord denominates by the
term ' scorney ;' ' now don't begin to bore me,
Ned, with trash of that description, I'm tired of
it quite : pray have you recollected that to-day

H2

100 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

is a half-holiday in all departments of the
Treasury ?'

1 Yes ; and the circumstance has cost me some
money ; these silly old customs ought to be
abolished in my opinion — they are ruinous.'

'Why, what have you given the poor
fellows V

' Two sovereigns ;' an emphatic hem formed
Arthur's reply to the communication.

They had now entered Nokel Street, and
were proceeding in silence past the line of mag-
nificent shops which it contains, when the sound
of wheels was heard behind them, and a smooth-
rolling chariot dashed up and stopped just where
they stood. One of the window-glasses now
fell, a white hand was put out and beckoned
them to draw near, while a silvery voice said,

' Mr. Sidney, Marquis of Douro, come hither
a moment.'

Both the gentlemen obeyed the summons,
Arthur with alacrity, Sidney with reluctance.

< What are your commands, fair ladies T said
the former, bowing respectfully to the inmates
of the carriage, who were Lady Julia Sidney
and Lady Maria Sneaky.

THEIR LITERARY TASTES. 101

' Our commands are principally for your com-
panion, my lord, not for you,' replied the
daughter of Alexander the First ; * now, Mr.
Sidney,' she continued, smiling on the senator,
' you must promise not to be disobedient.'

' Let me first know what I am required to
perform,' was the cautious answer, accompanied
by a fearful glance at the shops around.

* Nothing of much consequence, Edward,' said
his wife, ' but I hope you'll not refuse to oblige
me this once, love. I only want a few guineas
to make out the price of a pair of earrings I have
just seen in Mr. Lapis's shop.'

' Not a bit of it,' answered he. * Not a far-
thing will I give you : it is scarce three weeks
since you received your quarter's allowance,
and if that is done already you may suffer for
it.'

With this decisive reply, he instinctively
thrust his hands into his breeches' pockets, and
marched off with a hurried step.

' Stingy little monkey !' exclaimed Lady Julia,
sinking back on the carriage-seat, while the
bright flush of anger and disappointment crim-
soned her fair cheek. ' This is the way he

102 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

always treats me, but I'll make him suffer for
it!'

' Do not discompose yourself so much, my
dear,' said her companion, ( my purse is at your
service, if you will accept it.'

' I am sensible of your goodness, Maria, but
of course I shall not take advantage of it ; no,
no, I can do without the earrings — it is only a
fancy, though to be sure I would rather have
them.'

' My pretty cousin,' observed the marquis,
who, till now, had remained a quiet though
much-amused spectator of the whole scene, ' you
are certainly one of the most extravagant
young ladies I know : why, what on earth
can you possibly want with these trinkets ? To
my knowledge you have at least a dozen differ-
ent sorts of ear-ornaments.'

' That is true ; but then these are quite of
another kind ; they are so pretty and unique that
I could not help wishing for them.'

* Well, since your heart is so much set upon
the baubles, I will see whether my purse can
compass their price, if you will allow me to
accompany you to Mr. Lapis's.'

THEIR LITERARY TASTES. 103

' Oh ! thank you, Arthur, you are very kind,'
said Lady Julia, and both the ladies quickly
made room for him as he sprang in and seated
himself between them.

In a few minutes they reached the jeweller's
shop. Mr. Lapis received them with an obse-
quious bow, and proceeded to display his glit-
tering stores. The pendants which had so
fascinated Lady Julia were in the form of two
brilliant little humming-birds, whose jewelled
plumage equalled if not surpassed the bright
hues of nature ....

This gay and pleasant fragment of a story, in
which the characters and scenes are so freshly
drawn, may well be imagined as one of the
best, if not the best, of these productions of the
Bronte children. We may, indeed, regard the
spirit and style of these early stories as the out-
come of their eager and observant reading of
the magazine and newspaper articles within
their reach — when their plastic minds would re-
ceive indelible impressions, from which they,
perhaps without knowing it, acquired the know-

104 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

ledge and practice of accurate literary composi-
tion, and of how to clothe their thoughts in fit-
ting words. Their retentive memories, and their
intuitive faculty of putting things, brought
them thus early to the threshold of the re-
public of letters. Mrs. Gaskell states that these
works were principally written by Charlotte in
a hand so small as to be t almost impossible to
decipher without the aid of a magnifying glass.'
The specimen she gives is written in an upright
hand, and was an attempt to represent the
stories in a kind of print, as near as might be to
type. If, however, Charlotte and Emily ever
accustomed themselves in these early works to
this diminutive type-like writing, they threw it
off completely in after years. This, Branwell
never did, and Mrs. Gaskell's fac-simile page is
not without some resemblance to one of his
ordinary pages of manuscript reduced in size.

Mr. T. Wemyss Reid observes that Mrs. Gas-
kell, in speaking of the juvenile performances of
the Bronte children, ' paid exclusive attention to
Charlotte's productions.' * All readers of the
Bronte story,' he says, ' will remember the
account of the play of " The Islanders/' and

THEIR LITERARY TASTES. 105

other remarkable specimens, showing with what
•real vigour and originality Charlotte could
handle her pen while she was still in the first
years of her teens.' And he adds that ' those few
persons who have seen the whole of the juvenile
library of the family bear testimony to the fact
that Branwell and Emily were at least as in-
dustrious and successful as Charlotte herself.'1

Even at this early period the youthful Brontes
had read industriously. ' Blackwood's Magazine '
had, as early as the year 1829, asserted itself to
Charlotte's childish taste as 'the most able
periodical there is,' and ever afterwards the
whole family looked with the greatest pleasure
for the brilliant essays of Christopher North and
his coterie. Of other papers they s"aw ' John
Bull ' and the ' Leeds Intelligencer,' both un-
compromising Conservatives, and the ' Leeds
Mercury,' of the opposite party. The youthful
Brontes were also readers of the ' British Essay-
ists,' ' The Rambler,' ' The Mirror,' and « The
Lounger,' and they were great admirers of
Scott.

1 ' Charlotte Bronte, a monograph,' p. 27.

106 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

But the advice which Charlotte afterwards
gave to her friend * E,' with regard 'to books for
perusal, shows that their reading had been
much wider : Shakespeare, Milton, Thomson,
Goldsmith, Pope, Byron, Campbell, and Words-
worth ; Hume, Rollin, and the ' Universal History ;r
Johnson's 'Poets,' Bos well's 'Johnson,' Southey's
* Nelson,' Lockhart's ' Burns,' Moore's ' Sheridan,'
Moore's ' Byron,' and Wolfe's ' Remains ;' and for
natural history, she recommends Bewick, Andu-
bon, White, and, strangely enough, Goldsmith.
Branwell's favourite poets were Wordsworth
and the melancholy Cowper, whose ' Castaway '
he was always fond of quoting. The Brontes,
in their young years, obtained much of their in-
tellectual food from the circulating library at
Keighley.

The extraordinary literary activity which
prompted these children never afterwards left
them ; and Branwell, along with his sisters, was,
as we have seen, the author of many effusions
of remarkable character. But, as time passed
on, and experience was gained, his literary pro-
ductions began to acquire more vigour and
polish. Yet the tone of his mind, however joy-

THEIR LITERARY TASTES. 107

ous it might be at times, recurred, when the
immediate occasion had passed, to that pensive
melancholy which, throughout his life, was his
most marked characteristic.

Mr. Bronte looked with supreme pleasure on
the growing talents of his children ; but his
principal hope was centred in his son, who, as
he fondly trusted, should add lustre to and per-
petuate his name. The boy, in these years, Avas
precocious and lively, overflowing with humour
and jollity, ready to crack a joke with the
rustics he met, and all the time gathering in,
with the quickest perception, impressions, both
for good and ill, of human nature. Mr. Bronte
sedulously, to the utmost of his power, attend-
ing to the education of Branwell, did not see the
instability of his son's character, or did not
apprehend any mischief from the acquaintances
he had formed.

The incumbent of Haworth had distinct liter-
ary leanings, and it delighted him to find that
his sou had manifested literary capacity. It
has been urged as somewhat of a reproach
against Mr. Bronte that he did not send Bran-
Avell to a public school, but relied solely upon

108 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

his own tutorship for his son's education. Situ-
ated as Mr. Bronte was, such a step as that
said to have been recommended to him was
unnecessary. The Grammar School adjoining
was under the snperintendance of a master who
was well qualified to give a higher education
to his pupils, if required ; and Mr. Bronte him-
self was equally well able to do the same, but
his daily duties within his chapelry left him
little or no time to take upon himself the entire
education of his son : all he could do was to
watch and ascertain occasionally how he was
progressing. Mr. Bronte, indeed, might have
given the finishing touches to his son's instruc-
tion. Those, however, who knew the brilliant
youth in the ripeness of his early manhood,
recognized the extent of the knowledge he
had acquired, and felt, too, that he had been
sufficiently well-trained to know how to put
it to good use.

109

CHAPTER

YOUTH.

Charlotte goes to Roe Head — Return Home — Branwell at
the Time — The Companion of his Sisters — Escort*
Charlotte on a Visit — He becomes Interested in
Pugilism — His Education — His Love for Music — His
Retentive Memory — His Personal Appearance — His
Spirit.

LITTLE more of interest seems to be known
concerning the Bronte's prior to the year 1831r
but it is very apparent that Mr. Bronte ex-
ercised a large influence in the formation of his
children's habits and characters. He, for in-
stance, had a study in which he spent a con-
siderable portion of his time. The children had
their study also. Mr. Bronte had written poems
and tales, and was wont to tell strange stories
at the breakfast-table. The children imitated
him in these things. Mr. Bronte took an en-

110 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

thusiastic interest in all political matters ; and
here the children followed him also. In short,
they copied him in almost everything. After-
wards, he was accustomed to hold himself up as
an example for their guidance, and to tell them
how he had struggled and worked his way to
the position he held ; and there is no doubt
that his children had a great admiration for his
career.

Miss Branwell's influence was altogether dis-
tinct from that of Mr. Bronte. While taking pride
in the mental ability of her nephew, she aimed
at making his sisters into good housewives
and patterns of domestic and unobtrusive virtue.
With this object, turning her bed-chamber into
a school-room, she taught them to sew and to
embroider; and they occupied their time in
making charity clothing, a work which she
maintained ' was not for the good of the recipi-
ents, but of the sewers ; it was proper for them
to . do it.' Under Miss Branwell they likewise
learned to clean, to wash, to bake, to cook, to
make jams and jellies, with many other domes-
tic mysteries ; and here, as in everything else,
they were apt pupils.

YOUTH. Ill

But, towards the end of the year 1830, it was
decided that Charlotte should seek a wider train-
ing elsewhere ; and a school, kept by Miss
Wooler, at Roe Head, between Leeds and Hud-
dersfield, was fixed upon. It was a quaint, old-
fashioned house, standing in a pleasant country,
which had an interest for Charlotte, for it lay
not far from Hartshead, where her father's first
Yorkshire curacy had been. This circumstance,
together with the proximity of the remains of
Kirklees priory — which had their traditions of
Robin Hood — and the strange local stories she
heard from Miss Wooler, led her afterwards to
make this district the scene of her novel of
* Shirley.' Miss Wooler was a kind, motherly
lady who took an interest in each one of her
pupils. She had long been a keen observer,
and knew well how to put her knowledge to
use in tuition. In this school, Charlotte, a girl
of sixteen, was an indefatigable student, scarce-
ly resting in her pursuit of knowledge. She
was not exactly sociable, and sat often alone
with her book in play-hours — a thin fragile girl,
whose brown hair overshadowed the page on
which her eyes, ' those expressive orbs,' were

112 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

so intently fixed. Her companions remarked at
that time that she had a great store of out-of-
the-way knowledge, while on some points of
general information she was comparatively ig-
norant. But when Charlotte left Roe Head, in
June, 1832, she returned to the parsonage at
Haworth with more expanded ideas, and with
wider knowledge, and possessing, perhaps, a
keener relish for the delights of the literary
world. At Roe Head Charlotte made the ac-
quaintance of her life-long friend ' E,' and also
of Mary and Martha ' T.'

The family of Bronte appears, about this time,
to have been in perfect peace. Charlotte had
corresponded with Bramvell when she was at
Roe Head, as a .pupil of Miss Wooler ; and Mrs.
Gaskell has published portions of a letter sent
from that place to him on May 17th, 1832, when he
was in his fifteenth year, in which she showed her
old political leanings wherein Branwell shared.
It runs : ' Lately I had begun to think that I had
lost all interest which I used formerly to take in
politics ; but the extreme pleasure I felt at the
news of the Reform Bill's being thrown out by
the House of Lords, and of the expulsion, or

YOUTH. 113

resignation, of Earl Grey, &c., convinced me that
I have not as yet lost all my penchant for politics.
I am extremely glad that aunt has consented to
take in "Fraser's Magazine;" for though I know
from your description of its general contents it
will be rather uninteresting when compared with
" Blackwood," still it will be better than remaining
the whole year without being able to obtain a
sight of any periodical whatever ; and such
would assuredly be the case, as, in the little wild
moor-land village where we reside, there would
be no possibility of borrowing a work of this
description from a circulating library. I hope
with you that the present delightful weather
may contribute to the perfect restoration of our
dear papa's health ; and that it may give aunt
pleasant reminiscences of the salubrious climate
of her native place.' 1

Charlotte's political principles were strongly
Conservative, as were those of her father, brother,
and eisters, and these principles were inten-
sified in them all by their religious opinions.
They held, consistently enough, the cherished
political convictions of their party, and they
1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. vi.

114 THE BROXTii FAMILY.

looked upon every concession made to liberal
clamour as an inroad on the very vitals of the
Constitution. Hence the jubilation of Charlotte
when the Reform Bill was rejected by the House
of Lords on October 7th, 1831. But the march
of events, in after years, modified their political
opinions considerably.

Branwell at this period, while still under
tuition at home, was the constant companion of
his sisters, and frequently accompanied them on
their visits to the moors and picturesque places
in the neighbourhood. 'E,' writing in ' Scribuer,'
says : ' Charlotte's first visit from Haworth was
made about three mouths after she left school.
She travelled in a two-wheeled gig, the only
conveyance to be had in Haworth except the
covered-cart which brought her to school. Mr.
Bronte sent Branwell as an escort; .he was then
a very dear brother, as dear to Charlotte as her
own soul ; they were in perfect accord of taste
and feeling, and it was a mutual delight to be
together. Branwell had probably never been
from home before ; he was in wild ecstacy with
everything. He walked about in unrestrained
boyish enjoyment, taking views in every direc-

YOUTH. 115

tion of the turret-roofed house, the fine chestnut-
trees on the lawn (one tree especially interested
him because it was iron-girthed, having been
split by storms, but still flourishing in great
majesty), and a large rookery, which gave to the
house a good background — all these he noted
and commented upon with perfect enthusiasm.
He told his sister he was leaving her in Paradise,
and if she were not intensely happy she never
would be ! Happy, indeed, she then was in him-
.self, for she, with her own enthusiasm, looked
forward to what her brother's great promise and
talent might effect. He would be, at this time,
between fifteen and sixteen years of age.1

In the June of 1833, when Branwell was about
this age, we learn that he drove his sisters with
great delight in a trap, or dog-cart, to Bolton
Bridge, to meet their friend ' E,' who waited for
the young Brontes in a carriage at the ' Devon-
shire Arms.' 2 This was a visit to the ancient
abbey and immemorial woods and vales of
Bolton. We may well imagine from the time
of the year — the 'leafy month of June,' when

1 Scribner, ii., 18, ' Reminiscences of Charlotte Bronte.'
* Reid's ' Charlotte Bronte, a Monograph,' p. 29.

i 2

116 THE BROXTE FAMILY.

all nature would be glad, and the deep woods
gay with varied leaves, while the Wharfe, of
amber hue, foamed and rushed impetuously
down its rocky channel, from the moorland hills
above historic Barden, to the peaceful meads of
the ruined abbey — that the hearts of the Brontes
rejoiced, enchanted and impressed by these
glorious and stately solitudes.

It cannot but be regretted that, while his
sisters could confer in confidence and familiarity
together, and enjoy a community of interests in
secrecy and affection, Branwell had no brother
whose sympathetic counsel he could embrace ;
but, thrown back upon himself, was led to seek
the society of appreciative friends, who made
him acquainted with the manners and customs
of the world, and the vices of society, before his
time had yet come to know much concerning
them. It was, indeed, unfortunately, no infrequent
circumstance to see the plastic, light-hearted,
unsuspecting Branwell listening to the coarse
jokes of the sexton of Haworth — the noted John
Brown — while that functionary was employed in
digging the graves so often opened in the church-
yard, under the shadow of the parsonage.

YOUTH. 117

It was the kind of society iu which he sought
relaxation at Haworth that led him to take an
interest, which he long retained, in the pugilistic
ring. The interest in pugilism and the ' noble
art,' it must, however, be remembered, had been
made fashionable by wealthy, influential, and
titled people, amongst whom was Lord Byron,
and by the fops and dandies of an earlier period.
Jackson, the noted professor, was a great friend
of the poet, and, on several occasions, visited
him at Newstead. Early in this century, too,
many men about town were accustomed to
assemble for practice at the academy of Angelo
and Jackson. Branwell, also, read with eager-
ness the columns of ' Bell's Life in London,' and
other sporting papers of the day. The names
and personal appearance of the celebrated pugil-
ists who, at that time, to the delight of the elite
of society, pounded each other till they were un-
like anything human — for the applause of the
multitude, and the honour of wearing the
4 Champion's Belt,' — were familiar to him. ' Bell's
Life ' was taken in by an innkeeper at Haworth ;
aud the members of the village boxing-club, one
of whom was Branwell, were posted up in all

118 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

public matters relating to the * noble art of self-
defence.' They had sundry boxing-gloves, andr
at intervals, amused themselves with sparring in
an upper room of a building at Haworth. These
practices, at the time of which we speak, were
but boyish amusements, and were no doubt
congenial to the animal spirits and energetic
temperaments of those who entered into them,
and they were so more especially to Branwell,
who had abundance of both. But it may be-
that here he became acquainted with young-
men whose habits and conduct had a deleterious
influence upon him at the very opening of his
career. If, however, Branwell's high spirit
allowed him sometimes to be led away by his>
companions, his natural goodness of heart
brought a ready and vehement repentance. The
respect he felt for his father's calling, magnified,,
in his eyes, any fault of his own — who ought to
have been more than ordinarily good — and, ex-
aggerating his failings, he would lament his
' dreadful conduct ' in deep distress. Such un-
mistakable evidences of sincerity and truthful-
ness procured him a ready pardon. He was
necessarily his aunt's favourite ; but he attached

YOUTH. 119

himself to all about him with so much readiness
of affection that it is quite evident, whatever
his youthful faults, they were of a superficial
character only.

The studies which Branwell pursued in his
youth were noticed by his literary friends, in
after years, to bear a considerable fruit of
classical knowledge. He possessed then a
familiar and extensive acquaintance with the
Greek and Latin authors. He knew well the
history and condition of Europe, and of this
country, in past and present times ; and his con-
versational powers on these, and the current
literature of the day, were of the highest order.
Mr. Bronte had obtained musical tuition for his
son and daughters, and Branwell was enthusi-
astically fond of sacred music, and could play
the organ. He was acquainted with the works
of the great composers of recent and former
times ; and, although he could not perform their
elaborate compositions well, he was always so
excited when they were played for him by his
friends that he would walk about the room
with measured footsteps, his eyes raised to the
ceiling, accompanying the music with his voice

120 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

in an impassioned manner, and beating time
with his hand on the chairs as he passed to and
fro. He was an enthusiastic admirer of the
oratorio of ' Samson,' which Handel deemed
equal to the 'Messiah,' and of the Mass-music of
Haydn, Mozart, and others. Religion had, in-
deed, been deeply implanted in Branwell's
breast ; but, whenever he heard sacred music like
this, his devotional impressions were deepened,
and even in times of temptation, indulgence,
and folly the influence of early piety was never
effaced. Among his minor accomplishments, he
had acquired the practice of writing short-hand
with facility, and also of writing with both hands
at the same time with perfect ease, so that he
possessed the extraordinary power of writing
two letters at once. His hand-writing was of
an upright character. Branwell, too, had a
wonderful power of observation, and a most re-
tentive memory. It is on record that, before he
visited London, he so mastered its labyrinths, by
a diligent study of maps and books, that he
spoke with a perfect knowledge of it, and
astonished inhabitants of the metropolis by his
intimate acquaintance with by-ways and places

YOUTH. 121

of which they even had never heard. In person
he was rather below the middle height, but of
refined and gentleman-like appearance, and of
graceful manners. His complexion was fair and
his features handsome ; his mouth and chin were
well-shaped; his nose was prominent and of the
Roman type ; his eyes sparkled and danced
with delight, and his fine forehead made up a
face of oval form which gave an irresistible
charm to its possessor, and attracted the admira-
tion of those who knew him. Added to this, his
address was simple and unadorned, yet polished ;
but, being familiar with the English language in
its highest form of expression, and with the
Yorkshire and Hibernian patois also, he could
easily make use of the quaintest and broadest
terms when occasion called for them. It was,
indeed, amazing how suddenly he could pass
from the discussion of a grave and lofty subject,
or from a deep disquisition, or some exalted
poetical theme, to one of his light-hearted and
amusing Irish or Yorkshire sallies. He could be
sad and joyful almost at the same time, like the
sunshine and gloom of April weather ; exhibit-
ing, by anticipation, the future lights and

122 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

shadows of his own sad, short, and chequered!
existence. In ;i word, he seemed at times even
to be jocular and merry with gravity itself.

It is known also that Bran well, at that period
of his young life — when manhood with its hopes
and joys, its enterprises and aspirations, its
affections and its responsiblities, stretched before
him — was also busily laying, to the best of his
ability, the foundations, as he trusted, of a
brilliant literary or artistic future.

123

CHAPTER VIII.

ART-AIMS OF THE BRONTES.

Love of Art in the Youthful Brontes — Their elaborate
Drawings — J. B. Leyland, Sculptor — Spartacus — Mr.
George Hogarth's Opinion — Art Exhibition at Leeds
—Mr. William Robinson, their Drawing-Master —
Branwell aims at Portrait-Painting — J. B. Leyland in
London — Branwell and the Royal Academy— He
visits London.

THE biographers of the Bronte sisters have
pointed out especially the artistic instinct of
Charlotte and Emily ; and the originality and
fidelity of their written descriptions, and the
beauty of the composition and * colour ' of their
word-paintings, have formed an inexhaustible
theme for the various writers on the excellencies
of Bronte genius. The appreciation of art
possessed by the members of this family,
whether in drawing, painting, or sculpture,

124 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

was manifested early ; but, though highly gifted
in felicity and aptness of verbal expresssion in
describing natural scenery, and in the delinea-
tion of personal character, they were not endow-
ed, in like degree, with the faculty of placing
their ideas — weird and wild, or beautiful and
joyous as they might be — in that tangible and
fixed shape in which artists have perpetuated
the emanations of their genius. The devotion of
Charlotte and Branwell to art was, nevertheless,
so intense, and their belief was so profound, at one
time, that the art-faculty consisted of little more
than mechanical dexterity, and could be obtained
by long study and practice in manipulation, that
the sister toiled incessantly in copying, almost line
for line, the grand old engravings of Woollett,
Brown, Fittler, and others till her eyesight was
dimmed and blurred by the sedulous application ;
and Branwell, with the same belief, eagerly
followed her example. Great talent and per-
severance they undoubtedly had ; and, although
we are not possessed of any original drawings
by Charlotte of striking character, we know
that Branwell drew in pen-and-ink with much
facility, humour, and originality. His produc-

THEIR ART- AIMS. 125

tions, in this manner, will be inoro particularly
noticed in the course of this work. Charlotte's
drawings were said to be pre-Raphaelite in detail,
but they had no approach to the spirit of that
school ; and Branwell's pictures, however meri-
torious they might be as likenesses of the individ-
uals they represented, lacked, in every instance,
that artistic touch which the hand of genius al-
ways gives, and cannot help giving. While at
school at Roe Head, Charlotte had been noticed
by her fellow-pupils to draw better and more
quickly than they had before seen anyone do,
and we have been told by one of them that ' she
picked up every scrap of information concerning
painting, sculpture, poetry, music, &c., as if it
were gold.' The list she drew up a year or
two earlier of the great artists whose works she
wished to see, shows us that her interest in art,
even in her thirteenth year, led her to read of
them and their productions.

On her return home in 1832, Charlotte wrote
on the 21st July respecting her course of life
at the parsonage : ' In. the morning, from nine
o'clock till half-past twelve, I instruct my sisters,
and draw ; then we walk till dinner-time. After

126 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

dinner I sew till tea-time, and after tea I either
write, read, or do a little fancy-work, or draw
as I please.' Charlotte also told Mrs. Gaskell
'that, at this period of her life, drawing, and
walking with her sisters, formed the two great
pleasures and relaxations of her day.'

Mr. Bronte, observing that his son and
daughters took pleasure in the art of drawing,
and believing this to be one of their natural
gifts that ought to be cultivated, perhaps as an
accomplishment which they might some time
find useful in tuition, obtained for them a draw-
ing-master. But he also observed that Bran-
well excelled his sisters in the art, while
he likewise painted in oils, and he may at times
have had some hope that his son would become
a distinguished artist.

It is apparent, indeed, that drawing not only
engaged much of Charlotte's leisure, but that it
formed a part of home-education. Her sisters
as well as herself underwent great labour in
acquiring the art in these early years, and
Branwell also was not behind them in industri-
ous pursuit of the same object. Charlotte even
thought of art as a profession for herself; and

THEIR ART- AIMS. 127

•so strong was this intention, that she could
scarcely be convinced that it was not her true
vocation. In short, her appreciative spirit al-
ways dwelt with indescribable pleasure on works
of real art, and she derived, from their contem-
plation, one of the chief enjoyments of her life.
' To paint them, in short,' says Jane Eyre, speaking
of the pictures she is showing to Mr. Rochester,
'was to enjoy one of the keenest pleasures I
have ever known.'1 The love the Brontes thus
cherished for art became, as time passed on, a
passion, and its cultivation a pressing and sensi-
ble duty. They were not aware that their in-
dustry in, and devotion to it, as they under-
stood it, were a misdirection of their genius.
How far this love of it, and this eagerness to
acquire a knowledge of the mysteries, of compo-
sition and analysis, and to bo possessed of
art-practice and art-learning, may have been
excited and encouraged by the success that
had bsen achieved by others with whom they
were familiar, in the same direction, may be
surmised.

In the year of Mr. Bronte's appointment to
1 ' Jane Eyre,' chap. xiii.

128 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Hartshead, there was born, at Halifax, an artist,.
Joseph Bentley Leyland, who was destined to
become the personal friend and inspirer of Mr.
Bronte's son, Bran well. Leyland, in his early boy-
hood, showed, by the ease and faithfulness with
which he modelled in clay, or sketched with
pencil, the objects that attracted his attention,,
the direction of his genius. The sculptor, as he
grew in years, treated, with artistic power,
classical subjects Avhich had not hitherto been
embodied in sculpture. At the age of twenty-one
he modelled a statue of Spartacus, the Thracianr
a general who, after defeating several Roman
armies in succession, was overthrown with his
forces by Crassus the praetor, and slain. The
dead leader was represented at that moment
after death before the muscles have acquired
extreme rigidity. The statue, which was of
colossal size, was modelled from living subjects,,
and was, in all respects, a production far beyond
the sculptor's years. It was the most striking-
work of art at the Manchester Exhibition in the
year 1832, and was favourably noticed in the
* Manchester Courier,' on November the 3rd of
that year. Such notices were productive of

THEIR ART- AIMS. 129

increased exertion, which soon became manifest
in the creation of other more lofty and success-
ful works. Among these was a colossal bust of
Satan, some six feet in height, which was pro-
nounced to be ' truly that of Milton's " Arch-
angel ruined." ' Mr. George Hogarth, the father-
in-law of Charles Dickens — a gentleman of
literary power and knowledge — was the editor
of the 'Halifax Guardian' at the time, and
visited the artist's small studio, where he saw, in
one corner, under its lean-to roof, for the first
time, the bust of Satan. He was astonished at its
merit, and published his criticism of the work in
the paper on May the 24th, 1834. Leyland was
then strongly urged to forward the bust to
London, which he did, with some others he had
modelled ; and the critics were invited to visit
his studio. The favourable opinion which Mr.
Hogarth published, in the paper of which he was
editor, was endorsed, but in more flattering-
terms, in the ' Morning Chronicle ' of December
2nd, 1834. But there was held at Leeds, in these
years, the Annual Exhibition of the Northern
Society for the Encouragement of the Fine
Arts ; and Leyland, before he sent his work to
VOL. I. K

130 THE BRONTii FAMILY.

London, included it in his contributions to the
exhibition at Leeds.

The oil-paintings and water-colour drawings
that were hung there, in the summer of 1834,
appear to have formed a fine and varied collec-
tion. There were beautiful landscapes in water-
colour by Copley Fielding, and in oil by Alex-
ander Nasmyth, John Linnel, Robert Macreth ;
and others were well represented, while historical
paintings by H. Fradelle, sea-pieces by Car-
michael, and animal paintings by Schwanfelder,
always good, were highly creditable to these
well-known names. A number of fine portraits
by William Bewick and William Robinson
added interest and beauty to the galleries. The
reader may conceive, if he will, the Brontes —
Charlotte and Bran well, and, it may be, Mr.
Bronte and Emily — enjoying to the full the
paintings and sculptures which were before
them. He may fancy the suddenly expressed,
'Look, Charlotte!' as some newly discovered
picture flashed as a keen delight on the eager
fancy of Branwell's appreciative spirit. He
may imagine the ready criticism of Charlotte,
and the attempts which she and her brother

THEIR ART-ADIS. 131

made to divine how much thought had gone to
make up the composition of a work. The young
Bronte critics, as they looked on the colossal
head of Satan — on the stern and inflexible firm-
ness of the features ' whose superhuman beauty
is yet covered with a cloud of the deepest
inelancholy ;' on the representation ' of the great
and glorious being sunk in utter despair,' — might
ponder, perhaps, whether an ideal has dawned
upon the imagination of the artist, and so been
wrought from no model, but from the vision of
his meditations, or whether success is, after all,
but the evidence of painful elaboration. At any
rate, it was just on such an exhibition of paint-
ings and works of art that Charlotte and Bran-
well delighted to dwell in intelligent and
educated observation.

That a new impetus and a new meaning were
given to their art practice about this time is
certain, and it was probably not long after this
date that Mr. Bronte engaged, for the instruction
of his son and daughters, an artist of Leeds, the
Mr. William Robinson I have mentioned as having
contributed a number of portraits to tho
exhibition. The object of the Brontes was now

K2

132 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

to practise painting, and this able instructor was
consequently engaged.

Mr. Robinson was a native of Leeds, who had,
by natural talent and steady perseverance, ac-
quired something more than a local reputation.
His early love of art had been such that the
wishes of his friends failed to divert him from its
pursuit, and he received lessons from Mr.
Rhodes, sen., of Leeds, an admirable painter in
water-colours. But Mr. Robinson had a strong
predilection for portrait-painting, to which he had
devoted his powers, at the same time availing
himself of every opportunity for improving in its
practice. In the year 18-0, he visited the metro-
polis, taking with him an introduction to Sir
Thomas LaAvrence, who received him with great
kindness, and he became a pupil of this eminent
artist. Sir Thomas, however, with noble gener-
osity, declined any remuneration whatever, and
Robinson assisted his master in his work. He
was introduced to Fuseli, and gained the privilege
of studying at the Royal Academy, his work
being characterized by the requisite merit. He
was stimulated to renewed exertion by this much
desired success. In 1824, he had returned to his

THEIR ART-AIMS. 133

native town, where he procured numerous com-
missions. He was subsequently introduced to
Earl de Grey, of whom he painted portraits, as
also of his family. Mr. Robinson, in addition,
painted four portraits for the United Service
Club, one of which was of the Duke of Welling-
ton, who honoured him with several sittings.
Besides these, amongst his other works, was a
portrait of the Princess Sophia, and a copy of
one of the Duke of York for the Duchess of
Gloucester. It was from this gentleman that
Branwell Bronte and his sister received a few
lessons in portrait-painting at the time of which
1 speak, and a knowledge of the master's career
•did not a little to fire the mind of the enthusiastic
Branwell with ardour to aim in the same
direction, while the contemporary efforts of others
added fuel to the fire.

At this time there were certain artists of the
neighbourhood who were trying their fortunes
in London, and who were known to Branwell
Bronte by reputation : C. H. SchTranfelcler, the
animal painter, and John W. Rhodes, the son of
the artist under whom Mr. Robinson had studied.
'The father of the latter had endeavoured to

1 34 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

dissuade him from making' art bis profession, but
all to no purpose : the bent of his genius could
not be curbed. He painted in water-colour and
oil with great beauty and fidelity ; the green
lane, the wild flower hanging from an old wall,
were his subjects. His works met with well-
deserved encomiums in the London press, and
with praise wherever they were exhibited ; but,
when full of aspiring hopes, he was attacked,
like Girtin, Liversedge, and Bonnington, by in-
flammation in the eyes, and ill health. He died at
the early age of thirty-three, and a memoir of him
appeared in ' The Art Journal' of March, 1843.
The determination of Charlotte and Branwell to
take, as it were, the Temple of Art by forcible
possession, was, it may be conceived, due also,
in rsome measure, to the growing celebrity of
Leylaiid ; for, in literature and art, Halifax was
nearer to the Brontes than any of the surrounding
towns. The praise of Ley land's works, moreover,,
had been re-published from the London press in
all the papers of his native county, and poetic
eulogies appeared in the 'Leeds Intelligencer'
and in the 'Leeds Mercury;' and, therefore, that

THEIR ART-AIMS. 135

they were eager to emulate his works and to
equal his success seems very probable.

I have felt it necessary to mention these
influences, as they alone serve to explain how it
was that Branwell and his sister were led to
think of, and — as regards the brother — to persist
for a time in making a profession of painting for
which they had no special aptitude. Branwell,
in fact, designed to become himself a portrait-
painter, and he conceived that a course of
instruction at the Royal Academy afforded the
best means of preparation for that profession.

Being gifted with a keen and distinct obser-
vation, combined with the faculty of retaining
impressions once formed, and being an excellent
draughtsman, he could with ease produce admir-
able representations of the persons he portrayed
on canvas. But it is quite clear that he never
had been instructed either in the right mode of
mixing his pigments, or how to use them when
properly prepared, or, perhaps, he had not been
an apt scholar. He was, therefore, unable to
obtain the necessary flesh tints, which require so
much delicacy in handling, or the gradations of

136 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

light and shade so requisite in the painting of a
good portrait or picture, Had Branwell possessed
this knowledge, the portraits he painted would
have been valuable works from his hand ; but
the colours he used have all but vanished, and
scarcely any tint, beyond that of the boiled oil
with which they appear to have been mixed,
remains. Yet, even if Branwell had been for-
tunate in his work, he would only have attained
the position, probably, of a moderate portrait-
painter. His ambition, however, took a higher
range, and he prepared himself for the venture,
hoping that the desiderata which Haworth could
not supply would be amply provided for him in
London, when the long-desired opportunity
arrived.

At Haworth he had been industrious, for he
had painted some portraits of the members of his
family, and of several friends. One of these is
well described by Mrs. Gaskell, and her account
is worth giving here : — ' It was a group of his
sisters, life-size, three-quarters length . . . the
likenesses were, I should think, admirable. I
only judge of the fidelity with which the other
two were depicted, from the striking resemblance

THEIR ART-AIMS. 137

which Charlotte, upholding the great frame of
canvas, and consequently standing right behind
it, bore to her own representation, though, it
must have been ten years and more since the
portraits were taken. The picture was divided,
almost in the middle, by a great pillar. On the
side of the column which was lighted by the
sun stood Charlotte, in the womanly dress of
that day of gigot sleeves and large collars. On
the deeply shadowed side was Emily, with
Anne's gentle face resting oil her shoulder.
Emily's countenance struck me as full of power ;
Charlotte's of solicitude; Anne's of tenderness.
The two younger seemed hardly to have attained
their full growth, though Emily was taller than
Charlotte ; they had cropped hair and a more
girlish dress. I remember looking on these two
sad, earnest, shadowed faces, and wondering
whether I could trace the mysterious expression
which is said to foretell an early death. I had
some fond superstitious hope that the column
divided their fate from hers who stood apart in
the canvas, as in life she survived. I liked to
see that the bright side of the pillar was towards
Jier— that the light in the picture fell on her. I

138 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

might more truly have sought in her presentment
— nay, in her living face — for the sign of death
in her prime.' 1

From Mrs. Gaskell's description of this one
picture, it is apparent that Branwell possessed,
not only the faculty, as we have seen, of obtain-
ing excellent portraits, but that he had the
ability to impress the faces of his sisters with
thought, intelligence, and sensibility ; and to
invest them with the habitual expressions they
wore, of power, solicitude, and tenderness. The
deep reflection which Branwell bestowed on this
picture, and the care he lavished on its mysterious
composition, show unquestionably the aptitude
and capacity of his own mind, which enabled
him to obtain these essential expressions ; and it
is evident that his peculiarity of thought invested
his picture with that sadness and gloom which,
in after times, tinctured the poems he wrote
under the solemn-sounding pseudonym of
' Northangerland.' This picture is only one
among many others he painted in preparing
himself for his intended studies at the Royal
Academy ; and the old nurse, Nancy Garrs, tells-
1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. vii.

THEIR ART-AIMS.

me that he often wanted to paint her portrait,
but she told him that she did not think herself
' good-looking* enough.'

At a later date Branwell related to Mr. George
Searle Phillips the story of his artistic hopes.1
He spoke of the great fondness for drawing
manifested by the whole family ; and declared
that Charlotte, especially, was well read in art-
learning, and knew the lives of the old masters,
whose works she criticized with discrimination
and judgment. But he said that she had ruined
her eyesight by making minute copies of line-
engravings, on one of which she was occupied
six mouths. He also spoke of his own passionate
love of art, and of the bright and confident
anticipations with which he had looked forward
to his projected studies at the Royal Academy,
which had been the cherished hope of his family
and himself.

Leylaud had visited London in the December
of 1833, when he obtained from Stotbard a letter
of introduction to Ottley, the curator of the
Elgin Marbles, to allow him to study the marbles
in the British Museum. Permission was readily
1 ' The Mirror,' 187±

140 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

granted, and the sculptor availed himself of it.
A year later Leyland took up his residence in
the metropolis. He was received in a friendly
manner by Chantrey and Westmacott, the latter
inviting him to dinner, and afterwards showing
him his foundry at Pimlico, and his works in
progress, among which was the statue of the
Duke of York. He was also introduced to, and
enjoyed the friendship of Nasmyth — the father
of the eminent engineer whose story has recent-
ly been given to the world — and of Varley : one
a landscape-painter of celebrity, and the other
famed as an artist in water-colour. The latter,
who had considerable faith in astrology, per-
sisted in drawing the younger sculptor's horo-
scope. Among others, he became known to
Haydon, under whom he subsequently studied
anatomy. This lamented artist was a genuine
friend, and it was under his instructions that
Leyland perfected his natural perception of the
grand and beautiful in art. While here he
modelled, in life-size, a figure of ' Kilmeny,' in
illustration of the passage in Hogg's ' Queen's
Wake,' where the sinless maiden is awakened
by Elfin music in fairy-land. It was a success-

THEIK ART-AIMS. 141

ful work, and was favourably noticed by the
critics. It was subsequently purchased for the
Literary and Philosophical Society of his native
town.

It was while Leyland was in the metropolis-
that Charlotte wrote, on the 6th July, 1835 :

* We are all about to divide, break up, separ-
ate. Emily is going to school, Branwell is
going to London, and I am going to be a
governess. This last determination I formed
myself, knowing that I should have to take the
step sometime, "and better sune as syne," to
use the Scotch proverb ; and knowing well that
papa would have enough to do with his limited
income, should Branwell be placed at the Royal
Academy, and Emily at Roe Head.'

While this project was warmly engaging the
attention of the Bronte family, Leyland was
living in London, at the house of Mr. Geller,
a mezzotiuto engraver, who was a native of
Bradford ; and, at the time, the sculptor model-
led a group of three figures illustrative of a
passage in Maturin's tragedy of 'Bertram,' which
represented the warrior listening to the prior
reading. The work was engraved by Geller.

142 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

This group was said to be conceived in the
•< true spirit of Maturin,' and met with the favour-
able notice of the London periodicals of the
year 1835, the year of Branwell's visit to the
metropolis. The reviews were also re-produced
in most of the Yorkshire papers.

The design of putting Branwell forward as
an artist, arid of giving him the opportunity and
the means of beginning and continuing his
studies, where he might be imbued with the
spirit of the great sculptors and painters who
have left imperishable names, and whose works
are stored in the public art-galleries of London,
had at last been determined upon. The sacri-
fices the Bronte family were prepared to make
in order to secure this object require but a
passing notice here. Branwell was a treasured
brother ; and they would feel, no doubt, a
sincere happiness in promoting his interests,
in furthering his views, and in bringing his
artistic abilities before the world. It would,
however, seem scarcely possible that the dif-
ficulties attending Branwell's admission as a
student at the Royal Academy had been duly
considered. He could not be admitted without

THEIR ART-AIMS. 143

n preliminary examination of his drawings from
the antique and the skeleton, to ascertain if
his ability as a draughtsman was of such an
order as would qualify him for studentship ;
and, if successful in this, he would be re-
quired to undergo a regular course of educa-
tion, and to pass through the various schools
where professors and academicians attended to
give instruction. No doubt it was wished that
Branwell should have a regular and prolonged
preparation for his professional artistic career; but
it would have lasted for years, and the pecuni-
ary strain consequent upon it would, per-
haps, have been severely felt, even if Branwell's
genius had justified the outlay. But there is
no evidence that he ever subjected himself to
the preliminary test, or made an application
even to be admitted as a probationer.

It would seem that, so far as Mr. Bronte was
concerned, his promotion of the wishes of his
children arose rather from a desire to gratify
them. It does not appear that he had any over-
sanguine expectation that Branwell could carry
out his ardent intention of becoming an artist.
Mr. Bronte's own wish was, indeed, that his son

144 THE BROXTii FAMILY.

should adopt his profession, but the mercurial
youth was probably little attracted by the func-
tions of the clergyman's office.

To London Brauwell, however, went, where,,
without doubt, his object was to draw from the
Elgin Marbles, and to study the pictures at the
Royal Academy and other galleries, with a per-
fectly honest intention. Whatever impression
he may have received of his own powers as an
artist, when he saw those of the great painters of
the time, we have no certain knowledge ; but it
does not exceed belief that he was discouraged
when he looked upon the brilliant chef d'ceuvresof
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Sir Thomas
Lawrence, and others; and that, when he
reflected on the immeasurable distance between
his own works and theirs, his hopes of a brilliant
artistic career were partially dissipated. Whether
it was due to these circumstances, or that he had
become more fully aware of the early struggles
that meet all who attempt art as a profession, or
that his courage failed him at the contemplation
of the unhappy lot which falls to those who,
either from lack of talent or through misfortune,
fail to make their mark in the artistic world ; or

THEIR ART- AIMS. . 145

whether it was because his father was unable to
support him in London during the years of
preparation and study for the professional career,
— the requirements of which had not been
sufficiently considered, — is not now accurately
known. Branwell, during his short stay in
London, visited most of the public institutions ;
and, among other places, Westminster Abbey,
the western fa£ade of which he some time after-
wards sketched from memory with an accuracy
that astonished his acquaintance, Mr. Grundy.

Before he left the metropolis, Branwell could
not resist a visit to the Castle Tavern, Holborn,
then kept by the veteran prize-fighter, Tom
Spring, a place frequented by the principal
sporting characters of the time. A gentleman
named Woolven, who was present through the
same curiosity which led Branwell there, noticed
the young man, whose unusual flow of language
and strength of memory had so attracted the
attention of the spectators that they had made
him umpire in some dispute arising about the
dates of certain celebrated battles. Brauwell
and he became personal friends in after years.
Brauwell returned to the parsonage a wiser
VOL. I. L

146 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

man. His disappointment that he was not to do
as others were doing, whom he wished to emu-
late, was very great, but he was not yet finally
discouraged. We shall see subsequently to what
purpose Bran well put his artistic 'knowledge.
The failure of the hopes regarding his academical
career in art was keenly felt by his family. It
was grievous as it was humiliating, but it was
borne with exemplary patience and resignation.
"When these painful experiences had impressed
the Bronte sisters with the hopelessness of high
artistic study for Branwell, and when their eyes
were opened to the consciousness that their large
gifts did not include art, Charlotte wrote, in her
novel of ' Villette,' under the character of Lucy
Snowe: 'I sat bent over my desk, drawing —
that is, copying an elaborate line-engraving,
tediously working up my copy to the finish of
the original, for that was my practical notion of
art; and, strange to say, I took extreme pleasure
in the labour, and could even produce curiously
finished fac-similes of steel or mezzotinto plates
— things about as valuable as so many achieve-
ments in worsted work, but I thought pretty
well of them in those davs.'

147

CHAPTER IX.

CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD.

Charlotte returns as a Teacher, with Emily as a Pupil, to Roe
Head — Their Determination to Maintain themselves
— Charlotte's Fears respecting Emily — Charlotte's re-
ligious Melancholy — Accuses herself of Flippancy —
She is on the Borders of Despair — Anxiety to Know
More of the World — Emily at Law Hill, Halifax, as a

, Teacher — Charlotte's Excitability — She returns Home
out of Health.

' WE are all about to divide, break up, separate,'
Charlotte said, when conveying to her friend the
news of the Academy project, and of her deter-
mination to enter upon life as a governess. If
BranwelTs ambition had encouraged her own, its
failure made no change in her plans. She was
* sad,' she says, ' very sad,' at the thoughts of
leaving home ; yet she was going back to the
school of Miss Wooler, whom she both loved and

L2

148 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

respected, to live at Roe Head, this time to teachr
it is true, instead of to be taught. But her
sister Emily was to accompany her, as a pupil of
the school, and that they would be together was
a consolation to both sisters; and Charlotte, too,
would be near the homes of the friends she had
made when she was herself a pupil there. It was
a pleasure to think she would be able to see
them sometimes.

At the end of July, then, the two proceeded
to Roe Head. This was the first of those adven-
turous moves which the sisters, from time to
time, made. One of the strongest features, in-
deed, in their lives is the persistency with which
they essayed to maintain themselves, even when
no apparently pressing necessity impelled them.
Yet we may not doubt that one sad reflection
sometimes moved them, and it was that their
father's stipend ceased with his life; that they had
no other resource beyond their own endeavours ;
and that, such was the uncertainty -of all human
concerns, they might at any moment be deprived
of home, support, and shelter. It behoved them
then to secure by their personal energies, while
they were able, the very means of subsistence.

CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. 149

When Mr. Bronte saw his young family around
him, and when he enjoyed the comfort of his
hearth, the contingency of his death, and the
consequent helplessness of his children, often
struck him with apprehension and sadness. But
he had the alleviation that they inherited, in
a marked degree, his own adventurous and
energetic disposition, whose successful career
Avas always before them as an example and
incentive to honourable endeavour.

Mr. Bronte looked back with just satisfaction
on the early sacrifices he had made to advance
himself in the world. His children were familiar
with the story of his exertions. They, however,
with far higher talents, were not possessed of
the physical strength and powers of endurance
which had aided his progress; and Charlotte
and Emily, when any unusual strain was cast
upon them, soon felt their strength exhausted,
and they suffered depression of spirits as the
consequence. Home-sickness was the great
trouble of the younger sister, and, before she
had been long at school, Emily grew pale and ill.
Charlotte felt in her heart that, if she remained,
.she would die ; and, at the end of three months,

150 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

she returned to Haworth, where, alone among
the moors, with all the wild things of nature,
which had inspired so deep an interest in her
feelings, she could be contented. But the
youngest sister, Anne, came to Roe Head in
her place, and she and Charlotte seem to have
been very happy there for some time ; but a tend-
ency to religious melancholy had been developing
in the elder sister's mind, imperceptibly, out of
her deep religious feeling, and it increased upon
her.

So early as the letter to « E,' July 6th, 1835,
she had spoken of ' duty, necessity, these are
stern mistresses,' as controlling her action in
seeking; a situation. Her friend Mary went to

•/

see her, and in her letter to Mrs. Gaskell she
says : ' I asked her how she could give so much
for so little money, when she could live without
it. She owned that, after clothing herself and
Anne, there was nothing left, though she had
hoped to be able to save something. She con-
fessed it was not brilliant, but what could she
do ? I had nothing to answer. She seemed
to have no interest or pleasure beyond the
feeling of duty, and, when she could get, used

CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. 151

to sit alone and "make out." She told me
afterwards, that one evening she had sat in
the dressing-room until it was quite dark, and
then, observing it all at once, had taken sudden
fright.' Some relaxation was gained by the
Midsummer holidays of the year 1830. All the
family were at home, and their friend ' E ' visited
them, so that a pleasant period of mental diver-
sion was secured. But, after her return to her
school, despondency came upon her again, and
crowded her thoughts ; and she wrote respecting
her feelings in religious concerns : ' I do Avish
to be better than I am. I pray fervently some-
times to be made so. I have stings of con-
science, visitings of remorse, glimpses of holy,
of inexpressible things, which formerly I used
to be a stranger to ; it may all die away, and
I may be in utter midnight, but I implore a
merciful Redeemer, that, if this be the dawn
of the Gospel, it may still brighten to perfect
day. Do not mistake me — do not think I am
good ; I only wish to be so. I only hate my
former flippancy and forwardness. Oh ! I arn
no better than ever I was. I am in that state
of horrid, gloomy uncertainty that, at this mo-

152 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

ment, I would submit to be old, grey-haired, to
have passed all my youthful days of enjoyment,
arid to be settling on the verge of the grave,
if I could only thereby insure the prospect of
reconciliation to God, and a redemption through
His Son's merits. I never was exactly careless
of these matters, but I have always taken a
clouded and repulsive view of them ; and now,
if possible, the clouds are gathering darker, and
a more oppressive despondency weighs on my
spirits. You have cheered me, my darling ; for
one moment, for an atom of time, I thought I
might call you my own sister in the spirit ; but
the excitement is past, and I am now as wretch-
ed and hopeless as ever.'

Let us not uuder-estimate the mental suffer-
ing which could dictate this confession. Hap-
pily, this was not constantly present, nor her feel-
ings always so acutely wrought upon. Even in
the same letter from which the above is taken,
she wishes her friends should know the thrill of
delight which she experienced when she saw
the packet of her friend thrown over the wall
by the bearer, passing in his gig to Hudders-
field Market. She persevered in her place, the

CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. 153

whole tendency of her exaggerated reasoning
forbidding her to seek that ease and relaxation
which she needed so much ; but she was not
incapacitated for her duties, and probably her
family were quite unaware of her troubles : so
she remained.

Brauwell and Emily were resolved not to be
behind their sister in their endeavours, and they
were full of anxiety to know more of the world
than they could meet with at Haworth. Emily
obtained a similar situation to Charlotte's, in a
large school at Law Hill, near Halifax, where
she found her duties far from light. Her ex-
treme reserve with strangers is remembered by
one who knew her there, but she was not at all
of an unkindly nature ; on the contrary, her
disposition was generous and considerate to
those with whom she was on familiar terms:
her stay at Law Hill terminated at the end
of six months. The place of her sojourn is
a lofty elevation, overlooking Halifax. Emily
would find the situation of the school agreeable
to her taste, and to her delight in the weird
and grand as presented by the solemn heath-
grown heights of the West Riding: besides,

154 THE BROXTii FAMILY.

the air was as pure as that of Haworth, and
Law Hill commanded finer views, among which
the range of Oxenhope moors, in her father's
chapelry, was visible. In the other direction,,
she could overlook the more cultivated district
of Hartshead and Kirldees, and could see Roe
Head, where her sisters Charlotte and Anne
resided. Branwell also, emulating his sisters,
obtained the situation of usher in the locality,
which he retained for a few months.

Some adventures with their literary produc-
tions interested them at the close of this year,
of which I shall have further to speak. Miss
Wooler's removal of her school to Dewsbury
Moor was, in some respects, unfortunate for the
sisters, as the situation was less healthy than
the former one, and, when Charlotte and Anne
returned home at Christmas, in the year 1837r
neither was well. Charlotte's nerves were over-
strung, and Anne was suffering from chest
affections, which conjured up anew their recol-
lection of the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth
from consumption. To add to their troubles,
Tabby fell on the ice in the lane, and fractured

CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. 155

her leg. The consequence of this was, that
they had to forego the expected pleasure of
a visit from their friend ' E,' through their at-
tendance on the old servant, whom they were
unwilling should be removed to her friends, how-
ever desirable this might be on many grounds.
They even went so far as to refuse to eat at
all, till their aunt, who had arranged the mat-
ter to the satisfaction of all concerned, except her
nieces, should give up her intention of removing
Tabby. They succeeded, and Tabby remained at
the parsonage, where in time she became con-
valescent, and Charlotte was enabled to visit her
friends before she resumed her occupation.

Charlotte again returned to her accustomed
duties, her nervousness increasing, not the less ;
and Mrs. Gaskell says : * About this time she
would turn sick and trembling at any sudden
noise, and could hardly repress her screams
when startled.' Through Miss Wooler's ur-
gency, she was induced to consult a medical
man, who advised her immediate return to
Haworth, where quiet and rest had become
for her imperatively necessary. Then her father

156 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

sought for her the companionship of her two

friends, Maiy and Martha T , than whose

society Charlotte had never known a more rous-
ing pleasure. They came to stay at the par-
sonage, and their cheerful converse and agree-
able manners greatly improved Charlotte's
health and spirits. We obtain an interesting
picture of the young party in the following
letter that Charlotte addressed to her friend
* E,' which Mrs. Gaskell has published :

' Ha worth,

' June 9th, 1838.

' I received your packet of despatches on
Wednesday; it was brought me by Mary and
Martha, who have been staying at Haworth
for a few days; they leave us to-day. You
will be surprised at the date of this letter.
I ought to be at Dewsbury Moor, you know ;
but I stayed as long as I was able, and at
length I neither could nor dared stay any
longer. My health and spirits had utterly
failed me, and the medical man whom I con-
sulted enjoined me, as I valued my life, to
go home. So home I went, and the change

CHARLOTTE AT ROE HEAD. 157

has at once roused and soothed me. I am
now, I trust, fairly in the way to be myself
again.

'A calm and even mind like yours cannot
conceive the feelings of the shattered wretch
who is now writing to you, when, after weeks
of mental and bodily anguish not to be describ-
ed, something like peace began to dawn again.
Mary is far from well. She breathes short, has
a pain in her chest, and frequent flushings of
fever. I cannot tell you what agony these
symptoms give me ; they remind me so strong-
ly of my two sisters, whom no power of medicine
could save. Martha is now very well ; she has
kept in a continual flow of good humour during
her stay here, and has consequently been very
fascinating . . .

' They are making such a noise about me, I
cannot write any more. Mary is playing on
the piano ; Martha is chattering as fast as her
little tongue can run ; and Branwell is standing
before her, laughing at her vivacity/

Branwell, in these days, was well enough,
and could be lively enough, when occasion

1 58 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

-served. He had his hopes, his enthusiasm yet :
but, in after years, he was to fall into a yet
deeper and more serious depression than that
through which Charlotte had passed.

159

CHAPTER X.

ERANWELL BRONTE AND HIS SISTERS'. BIOGRAPHERS.

The Light in which Biographers have regarded Branwell —
Bibliography — Mrs. Gaskell — The Causeswhichledher
into Error — Resentment of Branwell's Friends — Mr.
George Searle Phillips — Branwell as Depicted by Mr.T.
Wemyss Reid — Mr. F. II. Grundy's Notice of Branwell
— Miss A. Mary F. Robinson's Portrait of Branwell.

IT will be well here — before we reach the periods
of Branwell's life that have been misunderstood
—to pause, in our sketch of the Bronte family, in
order to consider certain circumstances regarding
him, which it will bo impossible for any future
writer on the Brontes to disregard. It is
especially necessary to consider them in a book
which — while dealing with the Bronte sisters,
their lives and their works — proposes, as a special
aim, to make Branwell's position clear. When

ItIO THE BROXTii FAMILY.

Derwent Coleridge wrote the short biography of
his father, which is prefixed to the poet's works,,
he approached the subject in a somewhat regret-
ful way, asking if the public has a right to
inquire as to that part of a poet's life which does
not influence his fellow-men after death, and
declaring that the privacy of the dead is sacred.
He felt too keenly that the sanctity of Cole-
ridge's life had been broken in upon by those
who lacked both accurate knowledge and just
discretion. It is a source of sincere regret to the
writer of this volume that he, too, is compelled
by circumstances to treat a part of his work
almost in a deprecatory spirit, and sometimes to
assume the position of defence. For, if the
failings of Coleridge have been discovered and
fed upon by those whose curiosity leads them to
delight in such things, what shall we say of
Patrick Bran well Bronte, whose misdeeds have
not only been sought out with a persistency
worthy of a better cause, but have also been
exaggerated and misrepresented to a great
degree, and whose whole life, moreover, has
been contorted by writers who have endeavoured
to find in it some evidence for their own

THEIR BIOGRAPHERS. 161

hypotheses V It has beeii the misfortune of
Brauwell that his life has, to some extent, been
already several times written by those who have
had some other object in view, and who, conse-
quently, have not been studious to acquire a
correct view of the circumstances of it. These
writers, it will be seen, have therefore, perhaps
unavoidably, fallen into many grievous errors
regarding him, so that his name, at this day, has
come to be held up as a reproach and even as a
token of ignominy. If it be remembered that
Mrs. Gaskell, in her * Life of Charlotte Bronte,'
describes him as a drunkard and an opium-eater,
as one who rendered miserable the lives of his
sisters, and might very well have shot his father;
that Mr. T. WemyssReid,in his 'Charlotte Bronte,
a Monograph,' has spoken of him as ' this lost
and degraded man ;' that Miss Robinson, in her
'Emily Bronte,' has called him a 'poor, half-
demented lonely creature,' and has moralized
upon his 'vulgar weakness,' his 'corrupt and
loathsome sentimentality,' and his ' maudlin
Micawber penitence ;' and lastly that Mr. Swin-
burne, in a notice of the last-named work in the
' Athenteum,' has said, ' of that lamentable and
VOL. I. M

162 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

contemptible caitiff — contemptible not so much
for his common-place debauchery as for his
abject selfishness, his lying pretension, and his
nerveless cowardice — there is far too much in
this memoir;' it may well appear that we have
here a strange subject for a biography.

But, since the publication of Miss Robinson's
< Emily Bronte,' — in which Bran well is specially
degraded, — it has been felt by many admirers of
the Brontes that it was desirable his life should
be treated independently of the theories and
necessities of his sisters' biographers, and in a
spirit not unfriendly to him ; for there are many
people who believe that Brauwell's genius has
never been sufficiently recognized, and there
are a few who know that, notwithstanding
his many failings and misdeeds, the charges
made against him are, not a few of them, wholly
untrue, while many more are grossly exaggerated,
and that his disposition and character have been
wholly misrepresented. Having in my possession
many of his letters and poems, and having been
personally acquainted with him, I have under-
taken the task of telling the story of his life in
connection with the lives of his sisters, for I think

THEIR BIOGRAPHERS. H'3

that there is much in his strange and sad history
that ought to be known, while sufficient evidence
exists of his mental power to prove that he was
a worthy member of the intellectual family to
which he belonged. It may not be amiss here,
in order to illustrate circumstances that will be
alluded to in parts of this work, to touch slightly
upon the bibliography of Branwell's life, and
endeavour to discover the causes which have
contributed to the ill-repute in which he is
generally held.

Mrs. Gaskell, who became acquainted with
Charlotte Bronte after the deaths of her brother
and sisters, when all that was most sorrowful in
her life had been enacted, saw, or thought she
saw, in her the evidences of a deep dejection,
the result of a life passed under circumstances of
misery and depression. In her 'Life of Charlotte
Bronte,' this writer's endeavour to trace the suc-
cessive influences of the trials of Charlotte's life
upon her, and to find in them the explanation of
what was, perhaps, in some measure, an idiosyn-
crasy of character, has led her, in the strength of
her own preconception, to interpret many circum-
stances to the attestation of her theory. Such,

M 2

164 THE BROXTE FAMILY.

at all events, is the explanation which Mr. T.
Weymss Keid has offered, in his ' Charlotte Bronte,
a Monograph,' of the partial manner in which Mrs.
Gaskell has dealt with certain of Miss Bronte's
letters. If we conceive Mrs. Gaskell writing
with this preconception, tending to give undue
weight to all that was unhappy in the history of
her heroine, we need feel little surprise that her
account of the lives of the Brontes is too often a
gloomy one, that their isolation at Ha worth,,
their poverty, and their struggles have been
exaggerated, or that, in order to throw in a
sombre background to her picture, she was
unduly credulous in listening to those imfounded
stories with which she made Mr. Bronte to
appear, in act, at least, diabolical, and which have-
helped to depict the career of Patrick Branwell
Bronte in such dark and tragic colours. She had
heard at Ha worth the story of his disgrace, his
subsequent intemperance, and his death. Herein
she believed was the great sorrow of the sistersr
minds, the care which had induced a morbid
peculiarity in their writings, and cast a shadow
upon their lives. Mrs. Gaskell seems to have
thought it devolved upon her, not merely to

THEIR BIOGRAPHERS. 165

picture beginnings of evil in the brother, and
trace them to his ruin ; but, also, to punish the
lady whom she held responsible for what has
been termed ' BranwelFs fall.' To this end she
thought it right to lay at the lady's door, in part,
the premature deaths of the sisters; and, in sus-
taining the idea that the effect on them of the
brother's disgrace was what she believed it to
be, she was led to employ partial versions of the
letters, and exaggerate the whole course of
Branwell's conduct. Her book was read with
-astonishment by those whose characters were
made to suffer by it, and she was obliged, in
later editions, to omit the charges against the
lady ; and also those against Mr. Bronte. But
Mrs. Gaskell still maintained that, whatever the
cause, the effect was the same.

It was not believed at the time, by some, that,
•because Mrs. Gaskeli had been obliged to with-
draw the statements complained of, in the later
editions of her work, they were necessarily
untrue. Mr. Thackeray had said that the life
was 'necessarily incomplete, though most touch-
ing and admirable,' and the original edition was
still in circulation, and was pirated abroad.

166 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

The friends of Branwell Bronte, those who
from actual acquaintance knew his mental power
and real disposition, resented greatly the wrong
that had been done to his memory ; and several
representations were made in his favour. One
of these was in an article entitled : ' A Winter's-
Day at Haworth,' published in ' Chambers'^
Journal/ 1869. Mr. George Searle Phillips, in
the ' Mirror/ of 1872, also published some valu-
able reminiscences which tended to show Bran-
well's true elevation of character and gentleness
of disposition.

The publication of Mr. Wemyss Reid's ' Char-
lotte Bronte, a Monograph/ in the year 1877,
while it called attention to the original view of
Branw ell's life and character, did not aim to
remove it. Mr. Reid repudiated, with success, the
idea that the effect of Branwell's career upon
Charlotte and Emily was what Mrs. Gaskell
represented it to have been, without expressing
any dissent from the story itself. This writer
does not, indeed, appear to have suspected that
the explanation was to be found in the fact that
Branwell was not so bad as he had been made
to appear, or that Mrs. Gaskell had fallen 'into-

THEIR BIOGRAPHERS. Ki7

other errors besides those of the letters which
he corrected. But, though Mr. Reid carefully
avoided the reproduction of the details of Mrs.
Gaskell's account of Branwell's life, what
reference is made to him in the ' Monograph/
after the period of his youth, is always in terms
of reprobation, which have done nothing to dis-
courage belief in the suppressed scandal. More-
over, Mr. Reid revived some of the charges
against Mr. Bronte, and painted a sinister portrait
of him.

It was under these circumstances that Mr. F.
H. Grundy, C.E., another friend of Branwell's,
in his ' Pictures of the Past ' (1879), endeavour-
ed to do some justice to his memory, and de-
clared, notwithstanding his great failings, that
his abilities were of a very high order, and his
disposition one that should be admired. I have
found Mr. Grundy's materials of use in this
work. But, unfortunately, this friend of Bran-
well's wrote from recollection, and made sucli
great mistakes in the chronology of his life that
his account did not give a true interpretation
of actual circumstances. Mr. Grundy, too, had
evidently refreshed his memory with a perusal

168 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

of Mrs. Gaskell's volume, and so his information
was considerably tinctured with that writer's
misconceptions. This notice had the very op-
posite effect to that which was intended, and
has since been largely used by writers whose
purpose has led them to rank Branwell with the
fallen.

In Miss Robinson's recently published ' Emily
Bronte,' the scandal of Branwell's life, which
Mrs. Gaskell laid before the reading world, has
been reproduced, and her evil report of his
character greatly increased. ' Why,' it might
well be asked, ' should it be necessary to pub-
lish the records of a brother's misdeeds as a
conspicuous feature in a sister's memoir?
Why revive a scandal that has been so long
suppressed?' Miss Robinson has, indeed, given
her reason, in that Branwell's sins had so large
a share in determining the bent of his sister's
genius, that 'to have passed them by would
have been to ignore the shock which turned
the fantasy of the "poems" into the tragedy
of " Wuthering Heights,"' and here, probably, is
the only adequate purpose that could have
been found in doing so ; but it is scarcely suf-

THEIR BIOGRAPHERS. 169

ficient to explain why Miss Robinson Las, almost
from her first mention of Branwell Bronte to
her remarks on his death, treated every act
of his life with contumely, censure, and con-
tempt, or that she has, in opposition to every
previous opinion, represented his abilities as
almost void. While Mr. Reid suggested that
Emily Bronte, in writing her novel, must have
obtained some of her impressions from her bro-
ther's conduct, Mr. Grundy had made a state-
ment tending to show that Branwell had written
a portion of the story himself. If Branwell's
abilities were no better than Miss Robinson says
they were, she has disposed of Mr. Grundy's
assertion at once; but not the less does she
employ other reasons for that end, and the
degradation she has thought it necessary to
show in Branwell, answers quite as much to
prove the impossibility of his having written
the work, as to picture the cause of brooding
in Emily, under which she produced the tragedy
of ' Wuthering Heights.'

With views similar to those with which Mrs.
Gaskell wrote, Miss Robinson, in following the
biographer of Charlotte, has fallen into the same

170 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

errors. In order to make it clear that the part
Bvanwell had in the production of ' Wutheriug
Heights,' by his sister, was subjective, this
writer has found it necessary to show in his
life much of what is worst in the characters of
the story. So completely has Miss Robinson
carried out this portion of her work, that Mr.
Swinburne was led to say, in his notice of it,
that ' Emily Bronte's tenderness for the lower

animals was so vast as to include

even her own miserable brother.'1 But Miss
Eobinson has not succeeded so far without
much unfairness to the victim of her theory,
in omissions and errors of fact. I shall have
occasion to treat at some length, later, Bran-
well's relationship both to ' Wuthering Heights f
and ' The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.'

1 hope, indeed, to be able to prove that Bran-
well was (as all who personally knew him aver him
to have been) a man of great and powerful in-
tellectual gifts, to relieve his memory of much
of the obloquy that has been heaped upon itr
and to clearly show the remarkable individu-
ality of his character. I shall find it necessary,.
1 'Athenaeum,' June ICth, 1883, p. 7G2.

THEIR BIOGRAPHERS. 171

in doing so, to take exception to the portions
of Mrs. Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronte *
which deal with her brother, as to some extent
I had to do to those which refer to Mr. Bronte.
More especially, however, will it be necessary
to deal with the fuller statements in the first
edition of the work, and with their repetition and
amplification in the more recent volumes of
Mr. Reid and Miss Robinson.

I have thought it necessary to introduce these
remarks in this place, in order that the reader,
when he comes to the consideration of certain
statements made by previous writers concerning
Branwell, and his relationship with his sisters,
may have a clear understanding of the views
with which the works containing these state-
ments have been written.

172

CHAPTER XI.

BRANWELL AT BRADFORD.

Branwell becomes a Freemason — His love of Art undi-
minished — Has Instruction in Oil-Painting — Com-
mences Portrait-Painting at Bradford — His Com-
missions —His Letter to Mr. Thompson, the Artist —
Miss Robinson's Charges of Misconduct — Her Er-
roneous Statements — Branwell's true Character and
Conduct at Bradford — Remarks on his alleged Opium-
eating there.

WHEN Branwell returned from London it was
not without sin cere satisfaction that his acquain-
tances welcomed their gifted and versatile friend
back to Haworth, certain of whom induced him
to become a freemason. Thus Branwell was
brought into closer connection with the convivial
circles of the village.

There was held at Haworth, at the time,
' The Lodge of the Three Graces.' In this

BRANWELL AT BRADFORD.

lodge Branwell was proposed as a brother,
and accepted on the 1st of February, 1836,
initiated February the 29th, passed March
the 28th, and raised April the 25th of that
year, John Brown being the 'Worshipful Master/
Branwell was present at eleven meetings in
1836, the minutes of one of these — Septem-
ber the 18th — being fully entered by him.
On December the 20th of the same year, he
fulfilled the duties of 'Junior Warden ;' and, at
seven meetings of the lodge, from January
the 16th to December the llth, 1&37, he was
secretary, and entered the minutes. He also,
on Christmas Day of the same year, officiated
as organist.1 In addition to his duties in con-
nection with the Masonic Lodge, he likewise
undertook the secretaryship of the local Temper-
ance Society, of which he was a member.

Bran well's love of art had been too strong,
and his interest in its practice too intense, to
allow even such a check as that whicl^ his aspira-
tions had received in the failure of the Academy
project to finally discourage him. Hence it
was, I suppose, when he had relinquished his
1 Riley's ' History of the Airedale Lodge,' p. 48.

174 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

place of usher that his passionate desire of
becoming an artist, still cherished under dis-
appointment, revived. He conceived, as the
project of studying at the Royal Academy had
not proved feasible, that, if he had a full course
of instruction from Mr. Robinson, he could, in
that way, qualify himself, perhaps as well, to
adopt the profession of a portrait-painter, more
valuable in those days, when photographers were
not, than now ; and Mr. Bronte, leaning to his
son's wish, was induced to sanction the proposal,
as it might provide Branwell with an alterna-
tive occupation to that of tutor, the only other
that seemed open to him.

Mr. Robinson's charge, on the few occasions
of his lessons at Haworth parsonage, had been
two guineas for each visit. But it was IIOAV
arranged that Branwell should receive instruc-
tion from the artist at his studio in Leeds. In
this way he would not only have better oppor-
tunities of acquiring the art, but the cost would
be much less. For this purpose, he stayed at
an inn in Briggate, but occasionally took his
master's pictures to Haworth to copy. Under
this kind of tuition he continued for some

BRAN WELL AT BRADFORD. 175

months, -when, having completed his studies,
he resolved upon turning the instruction he
had received, probably through the kindness
of his aunt, to profitable account. With this
professional intention, he engaged private apart-
ments in Bradford, and took up his residence
as a portrait-painter, under the interest of his
mother's relative, the Rev. William Morgan, of
Christ Church. Among others, he painted por-
traits of this gentleman, and of the Rev. Henry-
Heap, the vicar. For some months Branwell
was successful in maintaining himself by these
praiseworthy efforts ; but it was scarcely to
be expected that he could succeed sufficiently
well in competition with the older and more
experienced artists of the neighbourhood.

Among his other pictures, were portraits of
Mrs. Kirby, his landlady, and her two children.
One of these, a beautiful little girl, was his
special favourite. At his frequent request, she
dined with him in his private sitting-room, her
pleasant smiles and cheerful prattling always
charming him.

It may be mentioned here that, when Bran-
well had entered upon his studies under Mr.

176 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Robinson, he formed an acquaintance with a
fellow-student, Mr. J. H. Thompson, who was
a portrait-painter at Bradford. A close friend-
ship grew up between them ; and this artist,,
being more experienced than Branwell, gave,
now and then, finishing touches to the pro-
ductions of his young friend.

Soon after Branwell gave up his profession
as an artist at Bradford, he wrote to Mr.
Thompson, in reference to some misunderstand-
ing which had arisen between himself and his
landlady. The letter is dated from ' Ha worth,
May the 17th, 1839.'

« DEAR SIR,

' Your last has made me resolve on a
visit to you at Bradford, for certainly this train
of misconceptions and delays must at last be
put a stop to.

'I shall (Deo volente) be at the "Bull's
Head" at two o'clock this afternoon (Friday),
and do be there, or in Bradford, to give me
your aid when I arrive !

* I am astonished at Mrs. Kirby. I have no
pictures of hers to finish. But I said that, if I

BRANWELL AT BRADFORD. 177

returned there, I would varnish three for her ;
and also I do not understand people who look
on a kindness as a duty.

' Once more my heartfelt thanks to you for
your consideration for one who has none for
himself.

' Yours faithfully,

' P. B. BRONTE/

Mrs. Kirby had not been quite satisfied with
the pictures before-mentioned ; but, on hearing
Mr. Thompson's favourable opinion, she at once
gave way. Although Branwell ceased his
residence at Bradford for the reasons assigned,
he afterwards painted portraits occasionally at
Haworth ; but also frequently visited his friends
at the former place, having become acquainted
with the poets and artists of the neighbourhood,
as we shall presently see.

Miss Robinson has undertaken to draw Bran-
well's portrait at this juncture of his affairs,
when she says he had attained the age of
twenty years, though in fact he was twenty-
two ; and the following is the labour of her
hands : ' He went to Bradford as a portrait-

VOL. I. N

178 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

painter, and — so impressive is audacity — actu-
ally succeeded for some months in gaining a
living there .... His tawny mane, his pose of
untaught genius, his verses in the poet's corner
of the paper could not for ever keep afloat this
untaught and thriftless portrait-painter of twenty.
Soon there came an end to his painting there.
He disappeared from Bradford suddenly, heavily
in debt, and was lost to sight until, unnerved,
a drunkard, and an opium-eater, he came back
to home and Emily at Haworth.'1

These statements are simply untrue. I have
the positive information of one who knew Bran-
well in Leeds, and who resided in Bradford
at the time when he was there, that he
did not leave that town in debt ; that he cer-
tainly was not a drunkard ; and that, if he took
anything at all, it was but occasionally, and
then no more than the commonest custom would
permit. I would rather believe — if all other

1 ' Emily Bronte,' p. 64. It may be noted here, to show
in some sort what amount of credibility attaches to these
representations, that Miss Robinson has placed BraiiwelTs
portrait-painting at Bradford subsequent to his tutorship
at Broughton-in-Furness, though really he did not go there
until a year later.

BRAXWELL AT BRADFORD. 179

evidence were wanting — the account of Bran-
well given by the friends who knew him per-
sonally, and who, at the moment in which I
write, are still living on the spot where he
exerted himself to gain a living by the labour
of his own hands, than the unfair, unjust, and
exaggerated charges quoted above. But Bran-
well's letter to his friend disposes at once of
the assertion that he * disappeared from Brad-
ford suddenly, heavily in debt, and was lost to
sight.' And, as to the statement that he was
unnerved and a drunkard, one should surely
rather accept the evidence of those who knew
him, that he was, on the contrary, as they
unhesitatingly say, ' a quiet, unassuming young
man, retiring, and diffident, seeming rather of
a passive nature, and delicate constitution, than
otherwise.' And, moreover, his visits to Brad-
ford, after he had given up his profession there,
were frequent, for his literary tastes, his artistic
pursuits, and his musical abilities had secured
him many friends in that town. Assuredly the
biographer of Emily has been very unfortunate,
to say the least, in her account of Branwell's
honest, upright, and honourable endeavour to

N2

180 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

make his living by the profession of art at
Bradford.

Miss Robinson asserts that Branwell was
an opium-eater ' of twenty,' in addition to
the other baneful habits she ascribes to
him. There is, however, no reliable evidence
that, at this period of his life, he was any
such thing ; and, considering the fact that
the biographer of Emily has assigned Bran-
well's art-practice at Bradford to a period sub-
sequent to his tutorship at Broughton-in-Fur-
ness, one may, perhaps, be permitted to suspect
that she is equally in error in her assertions as
to his opium-eating so young. Branwell didr
indeed, later, fall into the baneful habit, and
suffered at times in consequence ; but there is
no reason to believe that he became wholly
subject to it, or was greatly injured by the
practice, either in mind or body. We can only
surmise as to the original cause of his use of
opium ; but, when we consider the extraordin-
ary fascination which De Quincey's wonderful
book had for the younger generation of literary
men of his day, we shall recognize that Bran-
well, who read the book, in all probability fell

BRAN WELL AT BRADFORD. 181

under its influence. Let us remember, more-
over, that the young man's two sisters had died
of consumption, and that De Quincey declares
the use of the drug had saved him from the
fate of his father who had fallen a victim
to the same scourge. Lastly, it should not be
forgotten that, in the first half of this century,
the use of opium became, in some sort, fashion-
able amongst literary men, and that many ad-
mirers of De Quincey and Coleridge deemed that
the practice had received a sufficient sanction.
But the former of these writers had used the
drug intermittently, and we have reason to
believe that Branwell, who followed him, did
likewise. Let us, then, imagine the young
Bronte, revelling in the realm of the dreamy
and impassioned, and hoping fondly that con-
sumption might be driven away, resolving to
try the effect of the * dread agent of unimagin-
able pleasure and pain,' a proceeding from which
many less brave would have shrunk. Branwell
had doubtless read, in the ' Confessions of an
English Opium-eater,' that the drug does not
disorder the system; but gives tone, a sort of
health, that might be natural if it were not for

182 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

the means by which it is procured. He would
believe that — in one under this magic spell, that
is — 'the diviner part of his nature is paramount,
the moral affections are in a state of cloudless
serenity; and high over all the great light of
the majestic intellect.' Mrs. Gaskell describes
the operation of opium upon herself. She says :
' I asked her ' (Charlotte) ' whether she had ever
taken opium, as the description of its effects,
given in " Villette," was so exactly like what
I had experienced — vivid and exaggerated pre-
sence of objects of which the outlines were
indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc.'1 Bran-
well could not have tasted these stronger effects
of the drug when he first made use of it ; but
it should be remembered that he several times
recurred to the practice, and suffered the con-
sequent pains and penalties.

After his portrait-painting at Bradford, he
never again resided there, and it was about
the period of his leaving that place that he
began to see the artistic career he had chosen
was a mistake, and he determined to give it
up as a profession. Moreover, other influences,.
1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap, xxvii.

BRANWELL AT BRADFORD. 185

as we sHall see, had been, and were still, at
work upon him which caused him to turn once
more to literature. From the period of his
acquaintance with the drawing-masters, he had
become associated with the literary as well as
the artistic circles of the neighbourhood; and
he anticipated the literary future of his sisters.

184

CHAPTER XII.

LITERARY INFLUENCES AND ASPIRATIONS.

New Inspiration of Poetry — Wordsworth — Southey, Scott,
and Byron — Southey to Charlotte Bronte — Hartley
Coleridge — His Worthies of Yorkshire — Poets of the
West-Riding — Alaric A. Watts — Branwell's Literary
Abilities.

IN the early part of the present century, the
spirit of poetry began to make itself felt in
quarters where previously it had never been
known. The pedantic affectation of the Delia
Cruscan school gave place, in the works of a
passionate lover of Nature like Wordsworth, to
a fresher and purer inspiration, that delighted
in familiar themes of domestic and rural beauty,
which were often both humble and obscure.
It was Wordsworth, indeed, who ' developed
the theory of poetry,' — as Branwell Bronte well

LITERARY ASPIRATIONS. 185

knew — that has worked a greater change in
literature than has, perhaps, been known since
the period of the Renaissance. In his endeav-
our to solve the difficulty of ' fitting to metrical
arrangement a selection of the real language
of men in a state of vivid sensation,' Words-
worth had prepared the way for a natural out-
burst of poetic feeling, occupied with familiar
and simple topics. The writers of the so-called
' Lake School ' of poets, and especially Words-
worth, Coleridge, and Southey, were, in fact,
the leaders of the new movement; and, speedi-
ly, responsive to the free note of genius un-
curbed, there arose from many an unknown
place in England the sweet sound of poetic
voices not heard before. At the same time,
the touch of romanticism, which was imparted
by Scott and Byron, had a. great influence on
many of the younger poets of the new school.
It is evident, to anyone who has studied the
local literature of that time, that the works
produced under such inspiration were often of
great and permanent merit. Southey, writing
to Charlotte Bronte in 1837, indeed says, 'Many
volumes of poems are now published every year

186 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

•without attracting public attention, any one of
which, if it had appeared half-a-century ago,,
would have obtained a high reputation for its
author.'

Nowhere, probably, in England was the in-
fluence of the poets of Westmoreland felt more
deeply than in the valleys of the West-Riding
of Yorkshire. Indeed, a young publisher of
that district, Mr. F. E. Bingley, had sufficient
appreciation of genius, and enterprise enough,
to bring him to Leeds for the purpose of pub-
lishing works from Hartley Coleridge's hand.
The younger Coleridge — besides the prestige
of his father s name — had already become known
as an occasional contributor to 'Blackwood's
Magazine,' wherein first appeared his poem of
' Leonard and Susan,' so much admired. Mr.
Bingley entered into an engagement to enable
him to publish two volumes of poems, and a
series of ' Biographical notices of the Worthies
of Yorkshire and Lancashire,' which Hartley
Coleridge was to write. One of the volumes
of poems was issued from the press in 1833,
and was well received. ' The Worthies ' pro-
ceeded to the third number, forming an octavo-

LITERARY ASPIRATIONS. 187

volume of six hundred and thirty-two pages,
when circumstances compelled Mr. Bingley to
sell the remainders to another publisher, who
issued a second edition of this well-known work,
with a new title, in the year 1836. From the
same press there came, in 1834, ' Cyril, a Poem
in Four Cantos ; and Minor Poems,' by George
Wilson. C. F. Edgar, who was editor of the
' Yorkshire Literary Annual,' the first volume
of which appeared in 1831, was also the author
of a volume of poems, published by Mr. Bingley
in the succeeding year; and other poetical
works followed from the Leeds press.

But, in those days, there was scarcely a
locality in the populous West-Riding of York-
shire without its poet, and that poet, too, a
man of no mean powers. Nicholson, the Aire-
dale poet, had, previously to the time of which
I speak, published his 'Airedale, and other
Poems,' and his 'Lyre of Ebor.' His poetical
talents were really excellent, and his versatility,.
and the happy character of his effusions, made
Nicholson very popular in the West-Riding.
He died in 1843. The gifted poet of Gargrave,
Robert Story, had published, in earlier years,.

188 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

many songs and poems in the local papers ;
and he issued, in 1836, a volume, entitled, ' The
Magic Fountain.' This was followed, in 1838,
by ' The Outlaw/ and by ' Love and Literature,'
in the year 1842. This poet was an ardent
partizan of the Conservatives, and his lyrical
abilities were devoted with unflagging energy
to their cause. His ' Songs and Poems,' and his
' Lyrical, and other Minor Poems,' were sub-
sequently published. His political songs were
vigorous, and his pastoral ones were redolent
of pastures, meadows, and moors, breathing all
the freshness of nature in its happiest time.
Thomas Crossley, the ' Bard of Ovenden,' like
Story, possessed of lyrical talents of the highest
order, was a frequent contributor to the county
papers ; and he published, in 1837, an admirable
and delightful volume, entitled, ' The Flowers
of Ebor.' In the same year, William Dearden,
the ' Bard of Caldene,' the possessor of high
gifts, published his 'Star Seer; a Poem in
Five Cantos,' which was distinguished by great
power, originality, and loftiness of conception.
It was largely influenced by the spirit of roman-
ticism, and flowed with the sweetest diction.

LITERARY ASPIRATIONS. 189

This also was the age of ' Souvenirs,' ' Keep-
sakes/ 'Forget-me-nots,' and 'Annuals,' which
sold very largely, and contained much that was
really good. Heath, the proprietor of the
'Keepsake,' as we are told by Southey, sold
fifteen thousand copies in one year, and used
four thousand yards of watered-silk for the next
issue ; for these volumes were always resplen-
dent in silk and gold. Alaric A. Watts, who
published, in 1822, his 'Poetical Sketches' (a
fourth edition of which, enlarged and exquisitely
illustrated with designs by Stothard and Nes-
field, was required), became, in the same year,
editor of the 'Leeds Intelligencer,' which he
conducted with much spirit and ability. He
afterwards established the ' Manchester Courier,'
which he for some time edited, and was well
known in the northern shires. In 1828 and
1829 appeared his 'Poetical Album,' 'Scenes
of Life, and Shades of Character/ in 1831 ; and
from 1825 to 1834 he produced his ' Literary
Souvenir; a Cabinet of Poetry and .Romance/
with great and deserved success. It is more
than likely that the great popularity of his
venture led to the publication of 'The ^^^hite

190 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Eose of York,' a similar volume, which was
brought out at Halifax in. the year 1834. This
work was edited by George Hogarth, and, in
addition to the authors already mentioned — who
were, with the exception of Nicholson, the Aire-
dale poet, and the Leeds authors, contributors
to it — were F. C. Spencer, author of ' The Vale
of Bolton,' a volume of poems; Henry Ingram,
author of a volume entitled, ' Matilda ' ; Henry
Martin, editor of the ' Halifax Express ' ; John
Roby, author of ' The Traditions of Lancashire ; '
and others. There was also in the work a
contribution, entitled ' Moiiey Hall,' — treating
of a legend of the last-named county — by C.
Peters, the subject of which also exercised the
abilities of the author of ' The Flowers of Ebor ' ;
and subsequently interested Branwell Bronte in
a similar manner — his friend Leyland having
modelled a scene from the story, in clay.

It is beyond question that these literary in-
fluences, which stirred the depths of feeling in
Yorkshire, had a profound effect on the earlier
writings of the Brontes, and probably were
their original inspiration. All the local papers
were filled with the news of the literary move-

LITERARY ASPIRATIONS. 191

ment; and the busy brains in the parsonage
of Haworth could not but be raised to emula-
tion by the tidings. Branwell, especially, who
knew personally many of the workers in the
new field whom I have named, and was never
so happy as when he could enjoy their com-
pany, was soon moved, in the midst of his art-
aspirations, to partake in their literary labours.
At this time, the tastes of the Brontes in this
direction, and their progress in poetical and
prose composition, began to inspire them with
hopes and anticipations of the brightest char-
acter. From childhood their attempts at literary
composition had formed, according to Charlotte
herself, the highest stimulus, and one of the
liveliest pleasures they had known. They be-
gan to find out that their genius was not artis-
tic, but literary, and to pursue its bent with
increasing ardour and the warmest interest.

It cannot be doubted that Branwell, greatly
influenced, perhaps, by his sisters, or they, more
probably, by him — for they ever regarded his
genius as greater than their own — was soon
employing his pen as often, and more success-
fully, than his pencil. Mr. Bronte's daughters

192 THE BROXTii FAMILY.

•were possessed largely of discriminating and
critical powers, sufficient to enable them to-
judge accurately of the abilities of their bro-
ther ; and Mrs. Gaskell allows that, to begin
with, he was perhaps the greatest genius of
this rare family, and this more even in a literary
than in an artistic sense. Their favourable
judgment was based on evidence they had
before them. They were not ignorant of his
poetical and prose compositions ; and that these
showed great beauty of thought and much
felicity of expression, as well as considerable
power, originality, and freshness of treatment,
the evidences will appear in the subsequent
pages.

193

CHAPTER XIII.

EARLY POEMS.

BranwelTs Letter to Wordsworth, with Stanzas — Remarks
upon it — No Reply — He Tries Again — His Interest
in the Manchester and Leeds Railway — BranwelTs
Literary and Artistic Friends at Bradford and Halifax
— Leyland's Works there — Branwell's great Interest
in them — Early Verses — Mrs. Gaskell's Judgment on
his Literary Abilities.

BRANWELL, even while working at art with
great energy, was not, as I have said, oblivious
of his literary power. While, however, the
work of his sisters was to be conducted with
great earnestness of purpose, it was unfortunate
that the scintillations of Branwell's genius were
too often fitful, erratic, and uncertain : his mind,
indeed, even at this time, was unstable.

It may be noted, as characteristic of all Mr.
Bronte's children, that, united with sterling gifts

VOL. I. O

194 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

of intellectual power and literary acumen, there
was always some mistrust as to the merit of
their own productions, especially of poetical
ones. They seem to have felt themselves like
travellers wandering in mist, or struggling
through a thicket, or toiling on devious paths
with no reliable information at hand, until they
arrived at a point where progress looked im-
possible, until they had obtained a guide in
whom they had confidence. It appeared, indeed,
to the Brontes that, without an opinion on their
work, time might be altogether wasted on what
was unprofitable. Charlotte, therefore, in the
December of 1836, determined to submit some
of her poems to the judgment of Southey ; and
it would seem that she also consulted Hartley
Coleridge.

Before, however, Southey had answered his
sister's letter, Branwell ventured, in a similar
spirit, to address Wordsworth, for whose writings
he had a great admiration. The following is
his letter ; and, although it has been previously
published, it must not be omitted here.1

1 Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. viii.

EARLY POEMS. 195

' Haworth, near Bradford,

'Yorkshire, January 19th, 1837.

'SIR,

' I most earnestly entreat you to read
and pass your judgment upon what I have sent
you, because from the day of my birth, to this
the nineteenth year of my life, I have lived
among secluded hills, where I could neither
know what I was, or what I could do. I read
for the same reason that I ate or drank — be-
cause it was a real craving of nature. I wrote
on the same principle as I spoke — out of the
impulse and feelings of the mind ; nor could
I help it, for what came, came out, and there
was the end of it. For as to self-conceit, that
could not receive food from flattery, since to
this hour not half-a-dozen people in the world
know that I have ever penned a line.

' But a change has taken place now, sir ; and
I am arrived at an age wherein I must do some-
thing for myself: the powers I possess must
be exercised to a definite end, and as I don't
know them myself I must ask of others what
they are worth. Yet there is not one here to

o2

196 THE BRONTE FAMILY

tell me ; and still, if they are worthless, time-
will henceforth be too precious to be wasted
on them.

' Do pardon me, sir, that I have ventured to
come before one whose works I have most
loved in our literature, and who most has been
with me a divinity of the mind, laying before
him one of my writings, and asking of him a
judgment of its contents. I must come before
some one from whose sentence there is no ap-
peal ; and such a one is he who has developed
the theory of poetry as well as its practice, and
both in such a way as to claim a place in the
memory of a thousand years to come.

'My aim, sir, is to push out into the open
world, and for this I trust not poetry alone —
that might launch the vessel, but could not
bear her on ; sensible and scientific prose, bold
and vigorous efforts in my walk in life, would
give a further title to the notice of the world ;
and then, again, poetry ought to brighten and
crown that name with glory ; but nothing of
all this can be ever begun without means, and
as I don't possess these, I must in every shape
strive to .gain them. Surely, in this day, when

EARLY POEMS. 197

there is not a writing poet worth a sixpence,
the field must be open, if a better man can step
forward.

' What I send you is the Prefatory Scene of
a much longer subject, in which I have striven
to develop strong passions and weak principles
struggling with a high imagination and acute
feelings, till, as youth hardens towards old age,
evil deeds and short enjoyments end in mental
misery and bodily ruin. Now, to send you the
whole of this would be a mock upon your
patience ; what you see, does not even pretend
to be more than the description of an imagina-
tive child. But read it, sir ; and, as you would
hold a light to one in utter darkness — as you
value your own kind-heartedness — return me an
answer, if but one word, telling me whether I
should write on, or write no more. Forgive
undue warmth, because my feelings in this mat-
ter cannot be cool ; and believe me, sir, with
<leep respect,

' Your really humble servant,

« P. B. BRONTE.'

Mrs. Gaskell gives the following six stanzas,

198 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

which are about a third of the whole, and
declares them not to be the worst part of the
composition : —

' So where He reigns in glory bright,
Above those starry skies of night,
Amid His Paradise of light,

Oh, why may I not be ?

' Oft Avhen awake on Christmas niorn,
In sleepless twilight laid forlorn,
Strange thoughts have o'er my mind been borne
How He has died for me.

' And oft, within my chamber lying,
Have I awaked myself with crying,
From dreams, where I beheld Him dying
Upon the accursed tree.

' And often has my mother said,
While on her lap I laid my head,
She feared for time I was not made,
But for Eternity.

' So " I can read my title clear

To mansions in the skies,
And let me bid farewell to fear,
And wipe my weeping eyes."

' I'll lay me down on this marble stone,

And set the world aside,

To see upon her ebon throne

The Moon in glory ride.'

BranwelFs letter to Wordsworth is, for the
most part, well written, and breathes an eager

EARLY POEMS. 199

spirit, which shows the anxiety he was under
to know the opinion of a high and competent
judge as to how he stood Avith the Nine. It
tells us the ardour with which he read and
wrote, the ambitious turn of his mind, and the
special aims which he then had in the literary
world. But the verses, although imbued with
a fervent spirit of early piety, were such as
AVords worth could not justly review without
giving discouragement, and it seems probable
he preferred to keep silence rather than, by an
open avowal, to give pain — if pain must be
given — as the lesser evil of the two. Or, per-
haps, he took amiss the ready frankness and
apparent self-esteem which, notwithstanding the
disavowal, would probably seem present to him
in the letter of the young stranger who address-
ed him, without sending any evidence of the
powers of which he expressed himself so con-
fidently. But, at any rate, Mrs. Gaskell in-
forms us that the letter and verses were pre-
served by the poet till the Brontes became
celebrated, and that he gave the communication
to his friend, Mr. Quillinan, in 1850, when the
real name of ' Currer Bell ' became known.

200 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

It must not be overlooked that, in the verses
which Mrs. Gaskell has printed, we have no
opportunity of studying Branwell's dramatic
powers, which apparently found scope in the
poem he had written. In them is no develop-
ment of the effect of the passionate feelings
-which Branwell describes : ' struggling with a
high imagination and acute feelings,' and ending
* in mental misery and bodily ruin.'

However, discouraged by long waiting, or
assisted by friendly advice and criticism, he
toiled on in silence at his literary work, as he
did at art. The year 1837 turned out an
•important one for Charlotte. In March, she at
last received the answer from Southey, which
she considered a ' little stringent,' and from
which she declared she had derived good. She
says, in her reply to the Laureate, ' I trust I
shall never more feel ambitious to see my name
in print .... That letter is consecrated; no
one shall ever see it, but papa, and my brother
and my sisters.'

It would seem that Branwell, notwithstanding
the failure of his first venture with Wordsworth,
tried again, at a later date, with some other,

EARLY POEMS. 201

and more matured, compositions, Avhich he sub-
mitted to that poet and to Hartley Coleridge,
4 who both,' says Mrs. Gaskell, ' expressed kind
and laudatory opinions.' But, perhaps, the fact
that, to the letter quoted above, Wordsworth
sent no answer, and did not tell him whether
he should ' write on, or write no more,' dis-
couraged Branwell for a time; and he may
have been led to suspect that his productions
were worthless, and that time might 'hence-
forth be too precious to be wasted upon them.'
In this way, perhaps, he was induced to turn
with greater energy to his profession of art, as
a means of getting on, of which I spoke
in a former chapter, though we shall see that
he did not abandon his literary work.

Branwell also now found opportunities of
making himself acquainted with the grand and
wild scenery of the mountainous borders of the
counties of York and Lancaster, a wider dis-
trict than his sisters could well survey.

The Manchester and Leeds Railway was, at
the time, in course of construction below Little-
borough, passing through the picturesque and
romantic vale of Todmorden. Branwell be-

202 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

came greatly interested in the work ; and as
stores, and other things for the completion of
the line to Hebden Bridge, were forwarded
from Littleborough by canal, having been pre-
viously sent to that place from Manchester by
train, he soon ingratiated himself with the boat-
men, and was frequently seen in their boats,
It was 011 one of these occasions that Mr,
Woolven, previously mentioned, who was offici-
ally employed on the works, recognized at once
the clever young man who had surprised the
company at the ' Castle Tavern,' Holborn, and
entered into conversation with him. These
incidents led to a friendly intercourse between
them, which continued for some years.

Among his Bradford acquaintances, Branwell
numbered, in addition to Geller, the mezzotinto-
engraver, previously mentioned, Wilson Ander-
son, an admirable landscape painter, whose pro-
ductions are valued as truthful pictures of the
places they represent, and on account of the
skilfulness of their manipulation and colouring;
and also Richard Waller, a well-known and
excellent portrait painter. To these may be

EARLY POEMS. 203

added Edward Collinson, a local poet ; Robert
Story; and John James, the future historian
of Bradford. All these were personal acquaint-
ances of Branwell, as well as of Leyland, and
the intercourse between them was frequent.
For more than twenty years a party of these
friends was accustomed to meet, from time to
time, at the ' George Hotel,' Bradford, under
the auspices of Miss Rennie, who greatly prided
herself on seeing at her house, in their hours
of leisure, the artistic and literary celebrities of
the neighbourhood. Leyland was at Halifax,
being there to erect certain monuments, which
he had executed in London for various patrons
in his native town. While there, he modelled,
in the upper room of an ancient house, his
colossal group of ' African Bloodhounds,' his
model being a living specimen of the breed ;
and the group, which was exhibited in London,
was favourably noticed. Landseer regarded it
as the ' noblest modern work of its kind.' It
is now in the Salford Museum. The progress
of this group intensely interested Branwell and
his Bradford friends ; and they frequently visited

204 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Leyland's temporary studio. It also formed the
subject of a poem by Dearden.1 Finding this
studio of insufficient height for a great work
he contemplated — a colossal group of ' Thracian
Falconers ' — Leyland afterwards took a suitable
place in another part of the town, which, like-
wise, became a meeting-place of the local literati.
The new work was to consist of three figures,
the centre one being seated, and having upon
his right fore-finger a hawk ; while his left hand
rested on the shoulder of a youth just roused, as
if by some sudden sound ; and, on his right, was
a similar youth, half-recumbent, and also in a
listening attitude. The centre figure was alone
completed, and is now in the Salford Museum.

Branwell, on his visits to the artist's studio,
often lamented the dissipation of his high artis-
tic hopes, and confessed that he saw with pain
how misplaced his confidence in his own powers
had been. But the sculptor was a poet also,
and thus Branwell and he worked in the same
field. Many of Leyland's poems were published

1 ' The Death of Leyland's African Bloodhound,' by
William Dearden, author of 'The Star-Seer.' London,
1887. (Longmans.)

EARLY POEMS. 205

in the Yorkshire papers, and also in the ' Morn-
ing Chronicle,' and were always considered to
be of true poetic excellence. Branwell relied
much on the artist's judgment in literary mat-
ters, and often submitted his productions to
him.

Although Bronte had, as we have seen,
abandoned the hope of a high artistic career,
he still clung to the practice of portrait-paint-
ing, and this gave him leisure to court the muse.
The following are the earliest of his poems, of
which the MSS. are in my possession ; and these
are fragments only. The first is a verse of
eleven lines, dated January 23rd, 1838, which
originally concluded a poem of sixty ; —

' There's many a grief to shade the scene,

And hide the starry skies ;
But all such clouds that intervene

From mortal life arise.
And — may I smile — 0 God ! to see
Their storms of sorrow beat on me,

When I so surely know-
That Thou, the while, art shining on ;
That I, at last, when they are gone,
Shall see the glories of Thy throne,

So far more bright than now.'

This fragment, written by Branwell at the

206 THE BRONTE FAMILY".

age of twenty-one, is characteristic of the early
tone of his mind. His naturally amiable and
susceptible disposition had soon become imbued
with the spirit of Christian piety which sur-
rounded his life. He was, too, at the time, full
of noble impulses and high aspirations ; but the
shade of melancholy implanted in his constitu-
tion had begun to influence his writings. The
following, which is the beginning of another
poem, must have been written in some such
thoughtful mood, though the title is not borne
out in the portion I am able to give.

DEATH TRIUMPHANT.

MAY, 1838.

' Oh! on this first bright Mayday inoru,

That seems to change our earth to Heaven,
May my own bitter thoughts be borne,

With the wild winter it has driven !
Like this earth, may my mind be made

To feel the freshness round me spreading,

No other aid to rouse it needing
Than thy glad light, so long delayed.

Sweet woodland sunshine ! — none but thee

Can wake the joys of memory,
Which seemed decaying, as all decayed.

* 0 ! may they bud, as thou dost now,
With promise of a summer near !

EARLY POEMS. 207

Nay — let me feel my weary brow —

Where are the ringlets wreathing there ?
Why does the hand that shades it tremble?

Why do these limbs, so languid, shun

Their walk beneath the morning sun ?
Ah, mortal Self ! couldst thou dissemble

Like Sister-Soul ! But forms refuse

The real and unreal to confuse.
But, with caprice of fancy, She
Joins things long past with things to be,
Till even I doubt if I have told

My tale of woes and wonders o'er,
Or think Her magic can unfold

A phantom path of joys before —
Or, laid beneath this Mayday blaze —
Ask, " Live I o'er departed days ?"
Am I the child by Gambia's side,
Beneath its woodlands waving wide ?
Have I the footsteps bounding free,
The happy laugh of infancy ?'

Ill this beautiful fragment we have the first
passionate out-pouring of the self-imposed woes,
which, proceeding from within, were thereafter
to overspread and tincture with darkest colours
every thought of Branwell's mind. We see him
here for a moment, standing in incipient melan-
cholia, in what appears to him to be a desert
of mental despondency ; but, turning back with
a fond affection for the past, and recalling, in

208 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

plaintive words, the joys of ' departed days.'
He seems here, indeed, to seek in the mysteries
of the soul those pleasures and hopes which his
mortal self cannot afford him. Branwell never
appears to have forgotten, as I have previously
suggested, the sad circumstances of the death
of his sisters; and his solitary broodings over
these visitations gave a morbid tone to his
writings. It was in 1838 that he adopted the
pseudonym of ' Northangerland.' His earlier
poems, although occasionally showing some
power, were not sufficiently gifted to add to
the lustre of Bronte literature.

Mrs-. Gaskell, alluding to Branwell's literary
abilities about this time, says : ' In a fragment
of one of his manuscripts which I have read,
there is a justness and felicity of expression
which is very striking. It is the beginning of
a tale, and the actors in it are drawn with much
of the grace of characteristic portrait-painting,
in perfectly pure and simple language, which
distinguishes so many of Addison's papers in
the " Spectator." The fragment is too short to
afford the means of judging whether he had
much dramatic talent, as the persons of the

EARLY POEMS. 209

story are not thrown into conversation. But,
altogether, the elegance and composure of style
are such as one would not have expected from
this vehement and ill-fated young man. He
had,' continues Mrs. Gaskell, ' a stronger desire
for literary fame burning in his heart than even
that which occasionally flashed up in his sisters'.'
She says also that, ' He tried various outlets for
his talents and he frequently con-
tributed verses to the " Leeds Mercury." ' The
latter statement, however, is incorrect, for no-
thing of Branwell's appears in that journal.

VOL. I.

210

CHAPTER XIV.

POEMS ON 'CAROLINE.'

The Poetical bent of Branwell's Genius — ' Caroline's
Prayer ' — ' On Caroline ' — ' Caroline ' — Spirit of these
Early Effusions.

WHILE Branwell was occupying his leisure as
stated in the last chapter, and otherwise em-
ploying himself in a desultory way, he pursued
the poetic bent of his genius, and sought the
improvement of his diction and verse. Among
the earliest of his poetical productions, the
following are, perhaps, the best. They are
distinguished by a similar train of thought and
reflection, and by similar sentiments of piety
and devotion, as also by the same gloom and
sadness of mood, which pervade the poems of
his sisters. Indeed, without knowing they were

POEMS OF CAROLINE. 211

actually Branwell's, we might easily believe
them to be from the pen of Charlotte, Emily,
or Anne.

The three following poetical essays are on
'Caroline,' under which name Branwell indicates
his sister Maria ; and, in two of them, he records
his reminiscences of her death and funeral obse-
quies. The first of the three, which he has
framed in the sentiments and words of a child,
is entitled :

CAROLINE'S PRAYER,

OR THE CHANGE FROM CHILDHOOD TO WOMANHOOD.

' My Father, and my childhood's guide !
If oft I've wandered far from Thee ;
E'en though Thine only Son has died
To save from death a child like me ;

' 0 ! still — to Thee when turns my heart

In hours of sadness, frequent now —
Be Thou the God that once Thou wert,
And calm my breast, and clear my brow.

' I'm now no more a little child

O'ershadowed by Thy mighty wing ;
My very dreams seem now more wild
Than those my slumbers used to bring.

p2

212 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

' I further see — I deeper feel —

With hope more warm, but heart less mild ;.
And former things new shapes reveal,
All strangely brightened or despoiled.

' I'm entering on Life's open tide ;

So — farewell childhood's shores divine !
And, oh, my Father, deign to guide,
Through these wide waters, Caroline !'

The second is :

ON CAROLINE.

' The light of thy ancestral hall,

Thy Caroline, no longer smiles :
She has changed her palace for a pall,

Her garden walks for minster aisles :
Eternal sleep has stilled her breast

Where peace and pleasure made their shrine ;
Her golden head has sunk to rest —

Oh, would that rest made calmer mine !

' To thee, while watching o'er the bed

Where, mute and motionless, she lay,
How slow the midnight moments sped !

How void of sunlight woke the day !
Nor ope'd her eyes to morning's beam,

Though all around thee woke to her ;
Nor broke thy raven-pinioned dream

Of coffin, shroud, and sepulchre.

POEMS ON CAROLINE. 213

• Why beats thy breast when hei's is still ?

Why linger'st thou when she is gone?
Hop'st thou to light on good or ill ?

To find companionship alone ?
Perhaps thou think'st the churchyard stone

Can hide past smiles and bury sighs :
That Memory, with her soul, has flown ;

That thou canst leave her where she lies.

1 No ! joy itself is but a shade,

So well may its remembrance die ;
But cares, life's conquerors, never fade,

So strong is their reality !
Thou may'st forget the day which gave

That child of beauty to thy side,
But not the moment when the grave

Took back again thy borrowed bride.'

Here Branwell, though he has changed the
form of expression and the circumstance of the
loss, is still occupied with the same theme of
family bereavement, with which Charlotte herself
was so much impressed.

The following was intended as the first canto
of a long poem. It also is entitled, * Caroline ;'
and is the soliloquy of one ' Harriet,' who
mourns for her sister, the subject of the poem,
calling to mind her early recollection of the
death and funeral of the departed one. It is

2 14 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

extremely probable that Branwell made * Har-
riet' a vehicle of expression for Charlotte or
Emily, as he had adopted the name of ' Caro-
line ' for Maria.

CAROLINE.

' Calm and clear the day declining,

Lends its brightness to the air,
"With a slanted sunlight shining,

Mixed with shadows stretching far :
Slow the river pales its glancing,
Soft its waters cease their dancing,
As the hush of eve advancing

Tells our toils that rest is near.

' Why is such a silence given

To this summer day's decay ?
Does our earth feel aught of Heaven ?

Can the voice of Nature pray ?
And when daylight's toils are done,
Beneath its mighty Maker's throne,
Can it, for noontide sunshine gone,

Its debt with smiles repay ?

' Quiet airs of sacred gladness

Breathing through these woodlands wild,.
O'er the whirl of mortal madness
Spread the slumbers of a child :

POEMS ON CAROLINE. 215

These surrounding sweeps of trees
Swaying to the evening breeze,
With a voice like distant seas,
Making music mild.

' Woodchurch Hall above them lowering

Dark against the pearly sky,
With its clustered chimneys towering,

Wakes the wind while passing by :
And in old ancestral glory,
Round that scene of ancient story,
All its oak-trees, huge and hoary,

Wave their boughs on high.

' 'Mid those gables there is one —

The soonest dark when day is gone —
Which, when autumn winds are strongest,

Moans the most and echoes longest :
There — with her curls like sunset air,
Like it all balmy, bright, and fair —
Sits Harriet, with her cheek reclined

On arm as white as mountain snow ;
While, with a bursting swell, her mind

Fills with thoughts of " Long Ago."

' As from yon spire a funeral bell,
Wafting through heaven its mourning knell,
Warns man that life's uncertain day
Like lifeless Nature's must decay ;
And tells her that the warning deep

216 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Speaks where her own forefathers sleep,
And where destruction makes a prey

Of what was once this world to her,
But which — like other gods of clay —

Has cheated its blind worshipper :
With swelling breast and shining eyes
That seem to chide the thoughtless skies,
She strives in words to find relief
For long-pent thoughts of mellowed grief.

'"Time's clouds roll back, and memory's light
Bursts suddenly upon my sight ;
For thoughts, which words could never tell,
Find utterance in that funeral bell.
My heart, this eve, seemed full of feeling,
Yet nothing clear to me revealing ;
Sounding in breathings undefined
jEolian music to my mind :

Then strikes that bell, and all subsides
Into a harmony, which glides
As sweet and solemn as the dream
Of a remembered funeral hymn.

This scene seemed like the magic glass,
Which bore upon its clouded face
Strange shadows that deceived the eye
With forms defined uncertainly ;
That Bell is old Agrippa's wand,
Which parts the clouds on either hand,
And shows the pictured forms of doom
Momently brightening through the gloom :

POEMS ON CAROLINE. 217

I
Yes — shows a scene of bygone years —

Opens a fount of sealecl-up tears —
And wakens memory's pensive thought
To visions sleeping — not forgot.
It brings me back a summer's day,
Shedding like this its parting ray,
With skies as shining and serene,
And hills as blue, and groves as green.

"Ah, well I recollect that hour,

When I sat, gazing, just as now,
Toward that ivy-mantled tower

Among these flowers which wave below !
No — not these flowers — they're long since dead,

And flowers have budded, bloomed, and gone,
Since those were plucked which gird the head

Laid underneath yon churchyard stone !
I stooped to pluck a rose that grew

Beside this window, waving then ;
But back my little hand withdrew,

From some reproof of inward pain ;
For she who loved it was not there

To check me with her dove-like eye,
And something bid my heart forbear

Her favourite rosebud to destroy.
Was it that bell — that funeral bell,

Sullenly sounding on the wind?
Was it that melancholy knell

Which first to sorrow woke my mind ?

218 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

I looked upon my mourning dress

Till my heart beat with childish fear,
And — frightened at my loneliness —

I watched, some well-known sound to hear.
But all without lay silent in

The sunny hush of afternoon,
And only muffled steps within

Passed slowly and sedately on.
I well can recollect the awe

With which I hastened to depart ;

And, as I ran, the instinctive start
With which my mother's form I saw,
Arrayed in black, with pallid face,

And cheeks and 'kerchief wet with tears,
As down she stooped to kiss my face

And quiet my uncertain fears.

' " She led me, in her mourning hood,

Through voiceless galleries, to a room,
'Neath whose black hangings crowded stood,
With downcast eyes and brows of gloom,
My known relations ; while — with head
Declining o'er my sister's bed —
My father's stern eye dropt a tear
Upon the coffin resting there.
My mother lifted me to see
What might within that coffin be ;
And, to this moment, I can feel
The voiceless gasp — the sickening chill —
With which I hid my whitened face
In the dear folds of her embrace ;

POEMS ON CAROLINE. 219

For hardly dared I turn my head
Lest its wet eyes should view that bed.

' But, Harriet,' said my mother mild,
' Look at your sister and my child
One moment, ere her form be hid
For ever 'neath its coffin lid !'

I heard the appeal, and answered too ;
For down I bent to bid adieu.
But, as I looked, forgot affright
In mild and magical delight.

'"There lay she then, as now she lies —

For not a limb has moved since then —
In dreamless slumber closed, those eyes

That never more might wake again.
She lay, as I had seen her lie

On many a happy night before,
When I was humbly kneeling by —

Whom she was teaching to adore :
Oh, just as when by her I prayed,

And she to heaven sent up my prayer,
She lay with flowers about her head —

Though formal grave-clothes hid her hair !
Still did her lips the smile retain

Which parted them when hope was high,
Still seemed her brow as smoothed from pain

As when all thought she could not die.
And, though her bed looked cramped and strange,

Her too bright cheek all faded now,
My young eyes scarcely saw a change

220 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

From hours when moonlight paled her brow.
And yet I felt — and scarce could speak — ,

A chilly face, a faltering breath,
When my hand touched the marble cheek

Which lay so passively beneath.
In fright I gasped, ' Speak, Caroline !'

And bade my sister to arise ;
But answered not her voice to mine,

Nor ope'd her sleeping eyes.
I turned toward my mother then

And prayed on her to call ;
But, though she strove to hide her pain,

It forced her tears to fall.
She pressed me to her aching breast

As if her heart would break,
And bent in silence o'er the rest

Of one she could not wake :
The rest of one, whose vanished years

Her soul had watched in vain ;
The end of mother's hopes and fears,

And happiness and pain.

'"They came — they pressed the coffin lid

Above my Caroline,
And then, I felt, for ever hid

My sister's face from mine !
There was one moment's wildered start —

One pang remembered well —
When first from my unhardened heart

The tears of anguish fell :

POEMS OX CAROLINE. 221

That swell of thought which seemed to fill

The bursting heart, the gushing eye,
While fades all present good or ill

Before the shades of things gone by.
All else seems blank — the mourning march,

The proud parade of woe,
The passage 'neath the churchyard arch,

The crowd that met the show.
My place or thoughts amid the train
I strive to recollect, in vain —

I could not think or see :
I cared not whither I was borne :
And only felt that death had torn

My Caroline from me.

4 " Slowly and sadly, o'er her grave,
The organ peals its passing stave,
And, to its last dark dwelling-place,

The corpse attending mourners bear,
While, o'er it bending, many a face

'Mongst young companions shows a tear.
I think I glanced toward the crowd

That stood in musing silence by,
And even now I hear the sound

Of some one's voice amongst them cry —
' I am the Resurrection and the Life —

He who believes in me shall never die !'

' "Long years have never worn away
The unnatural strangeness of that day,
When I beheld — upon the plate
Of grim death's mockery of state —

222 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

That well-known word, that long-loved name,
Now but remembered like the dream
Of half -forgotten hymns divine,
My sister's name — my Caroline !

Down, down, they lowered her, sad and slow,
Into her narrow house below :
And deep, indeed, appeared to be
That one glimpse of eternity,
Where, cut from life, corruption lay,
Where beauty soon should turn to clay !
Though scarcely conscious, hotly fell
The drops that spoke my last farewell ;
And wild my sob, when hollow rung
The first cold clod above her flung,
When glitter was to turn to rust,
' Ashes to ashes, dust to dust !'

'"How bitter seemed that moment when,

Earth's ceremonies o'er,
We from the filled grave turned again

To leave her evermore ;
And, when emerging from the cold

Of damp, sepulchral air,
As I turned, listless to behold

The evening fresh and fair,
How sadly seemed to smile the face

Of the descending sun !
How seemed as if his latest race

Were with that evening run !
There sank his orb behind the grove

POEMS ON CAROLINE. 223

Of my ancestral home,
With heaven's unbounded vault above

To canopy his tomb.
Yet lingering sadly and serene,

As for his last farewell,
To shine upon those wild woods green

O'er which he'd loved to dwell.

'"I lost him, and the silent room,

Where soon at rest I lay,
Began to darken, 'neath the gloom

Of twilight's dull decay ;
So, sobbing as my heart would break,

And blind with gushing eyes,
Hours seemed Avhole nights to me awake,

And day as 'twould not rise.
I almost prayed that I might die —

But then the thought would come
That, if I did, my corpse must lie

In yonder dismal tomb ;
Until, methought, I saw its stone,

By moonshine glistening clear,
While Caroline's bright form alone

Kept silent watching there :
All white with angel's wings she seemed,

And indistinct to see ;
But when the unclouded moonlight beamed

I saw her beckon me,
And fade, thus beckoning, while the wind

Around that midnight wall,

224 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

To me — now lingering years behind —
Seemed then my sister's call !

' "And thus it brought me back the hours

When we, at rest together,
Used to lie listening to the showers

Of wild December weather ;
Which, when, as oft, they woke in her

The chords of inward thought,
Would fill with pictures that wild air,

From far-off memories brought ;
So, while I lay, I heard again

Her silver-sounding tongue,
Rehearsing some remembered strain

Of old times long agone !
And, flashed across my spirit's sight,

What she had often told me —
When, laid awake on Christmas night,

Her sheltering arms would fold me —
About that midnight-seeming day,

Whose gloom o'er Calvary thrown,
Showed trembling Nature's deep dismay

At what her sons had done :
When sacred Salem's murky air

Was riven with the cry,
Which told the world how mortals dare

The Immortal crucify ;
When those who, sorrowing, sat afar,

With aching heart and eye,
Beheld their great Redeemer there,

'Mid sneers and scoffings die ;

POEMS ON CAROLINE. 225

i

When all His earthly vigour fled,
When thirsty faintness bowed His head,
When His pale limbs were moistened o'er
With deathly dews and dripping gore,
When quivered all His worn-out frame,
As Death, triumphant, quenched life's flame,
When upward gazed His glazing eyes
To those tremendous-seeming skies,
When burst His cry of agony —
' My God ! — my God ! — hast Thou forsaken me !'

My youthful feelings startled then,
As if the temple, rent in twain,
Horribly pealing on my ear
With its deep thunder note of fear,
Wrapping the world in general gloom,
As if her God's were Nature's tomb ;
While sheeted ghosts before my gaze
Passed, flitting 'mid the dreary maze,
As if rejoicing at the day
When death — their king — o'er Heaven had sway.

In glistening charnel damps arrayed,
They seemed to gibber round my head,
Through night's drear void directing me
Toward still and solemn Calvary,
Where gleamed that cross with steady shine
Around the thorn-crowned head divine —
A flaming cross — a beacon light
To this world's universal night !
It seemed to shine with such a glow,
And through my spirit piercing so,

VOL. I. Q

226 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

That, pantingly, I strove to cry
For her, whom I thought slumbered by,
And hide me from that awful shine
In the embrace of Caroline !

I wakened in the attempt — 'twas day ;
The troubled dream had fled away ;
'Twas day — and I, alone, was laid
In that great room and stately bed ;
No Caroline beside me ! Wide
And unrelenting swept the tide
Of death 'twixt her and me !''

There paused
Sweet Harriet's voice, for such thoughts caused — '

This poem springs from the deepest feelings,
and from sorrows the most poignant. The
respective images, tinctured with grief and
despondency, pass before us with weird and
vivid reality; and many of the passages are
imbued with great tenderness, beauty, and
pathos. The painful, and, perhaps, too morbid
intensity of some of the pictures, whether of
dreams or realities, is painted here with the skill
of no common artist, whatever youthful defects
may be observed in the composition. The poem
is one more notable for tender sweetness than
any other that remains from Branwell ; but it

POEMS ON CAROLINE. 227

lacks in places the vigour and power of his
later compositions, and is, in several parts, of
unequal merit. In the earlier portion of it,
where he assumes the iambic measure, it is not
difficult to perceive the influence of Byron on
his diction. In this work Branwell again recurs
to the time when tears of anguish flowed from
his yet ' unhardened heart,' whose present woes
are forgotten in the swelling thoughts of ' things
gone by.' We recognize Avith what pathetic
feeling he paints in Caroline all the qualities
of instructress, guardian, and friend, which had
characterized his sister Maria. Long afterwards
Charlotte Bronte, inspired by similar feelings,
devoted the first chapters of ' Jane Eyre ' to a
delineation, in the character of Helen Burns, of
the disposition of her dead sister, whose death,
a few days after her return from Cowan Bridge,
she could scarcely ever either forget or forgive.

228

CHAPTER XV.

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE.

Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage — Her Remarks concern-
ing it— A second Offer Declined — Anne a Governess
— She Moralizes upon it — Charlotte obtains a Situa-
tion— Unsuited to Her — She Leaves it — Bramvell
takes Pleasure in Scenery — He Visits Liverpool with
his Friends — Charlotte goes to Easton — Curates at
Haworth — Their Visits to the Parsonage — Public
Meetings on Church Rates — Charlotte's Attempt at a
Richardsonian Novel — She sends the Commencement
of it to Wordsworth for his Opinion — Branwell re-
ceives an Appointment as Private Tutor.

AFTER the return of Charlotte and Anne from
Dewsbury Moor, whither Miss Wooler had re-
moved her school, the three sisters were at
home together for some months, and, in this
happy, unrestrained intercourse, with their
literary relaxations and their plans for the
future, Charlotte's mind expanded, and her

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 229

•strength returned. There was Branwell, too,
to think about ; his venture at Bradford and his
progress with his portraits. Then they would
have to go and see the likeness of Mr. Morgan ;
and, on such occasions, Branwell would have
much to say of art and literature, and, acquaint-
ances. But Branwell was usually at Haworth
on Sundays, and then he would hear of Char-
lotte's visits to her friends, and her adventures
on these occasions. It was shortly before the
date of Branwell's return from Bradford, in the
spring of 1839, that Charlotte received her first
offer of marriage. A young clergyman, who
had, as Mrs. Gaskell thought, some resem-
blance to the St. John in the last volume of
' Jane Eyre,' had evidently been attracted by
Charlotte Bronte ; but matrimony does not seem,
at the time, to have seriously entered into her
thoughts. In some respects the proposal might
have had strong temptations for her, and she
thought how happy her married life might be.
However, it was not the way with Charlotte
Bronte to take the path of smoothness and com-
fort, and leave the thorny one untrod ; and she
asked herself if she loved the clergyman in

230 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

question as much as a woman should love her
husband, and whether she was the one best
qualified to make him happy. ' Alas !' she sa ysr
' my conscience answered " No " to both these
questions.' She knew very well that she had a
' kindly leaning ' towards him, but this was not
enough for her, for it was impossible that she
could ever feel for him such an intense attach-
ment as would make her sacrifice her life for
him. Short of such a devotion awakened in
herself, she would never marry anyone. Her
comment is characteristic : ' Ten to one I shall
never have the chance again ; but Jiimporte.'

Charlotte Bronte felt that there was a want
of sympathy between the young clergyman and
herself, for he was a ' grave, quiet young man ;*
and she knew that he would be startled, and
would think her a wild, romantic enthusiast, when
she showed her character, and laughed, and sa-
tirized, and said whatever came into her head.
Nor was her next offer any more to her taste j
for, within a few months, a neighbouring curate,,
a young Irishman, fresh from the Dublin Uni-
versity, made her a proposal. The circumstance
amused Charlotte, for it was, on his part, a case-

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 231

of love at first sight. He came with his vicar
to be introduced to the family, and was speedily
struck with Mr. Bronte's daughter. Charlotte
was never troubled at home with the mauvaise
honte that troubled her abroad ; and so she talk-
ed and jested with the clergyman, and was
much amused at the originality of his character.
A pleasant afternoon was spent, for he made
himself at home, after the fashion of his coun-
trymen, and was witty, lively, ardent, and
clever ; but, withal, wanting in the dignity and
discretion of an Englishman. As the evening
dreAv on, Charlotte was not much pleased with
the spice of Hibernian flattery with which he
began to season his discourse, and, as she
expresses it, she ' cooled a little.' The vicar and
his curate went away ; but what was Charlotte's
astonishment to receive a letter next morning
from the latter containing a proposal of mar-
riage, and filled with ardent expressions of
devotion ! ' I hope you are laughing heartily,'
she says to her fiiend. ' This is not like one of
my adventures, is it ? It more nearly resembles
Martha's. I am certainly doomed to be an old
maid. Never mind. I have made up my mind

232 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

to that fate ever since I was twelve years old.
Well! thought I, I have heard of love at first
sight, but this beats all ! 1 leave you to guess
what my answer would be, convinced that
you will not do me the injustice of guessing
wrong.'

Although the married state does not appear,
from Charlotte's letters at this time, to have
had many attractions for her, we know, from
those she wrote later, and, perhaps, more
than all from the concluding chapters of ' Jane
Eyre,' that she could enter into the joys and
sacrifices of domestic life, that she had a correct
view of the affections, and knew how to appre-
ciate conjugal love at its true value. But, in
the present instances — although, at a later
period of her life, when she was on the Contin-
ent, she is believed to have felt the full force of
that ' passion of the heart ' which those about
whom she wrote had failed to evoke — she de-
clined to sever herself from the contented
circumstances that surrounded her, and in
which she was mistress, for a condition of
doubtful peace and certain obedience. Char-
lotte's decision was not discordant with the

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 233

i

feelings of .her family ; for, as she had determined
to continue at home, their plans for the future
would not be disconcerted.

Anne was now resolved on making a trial of
the life of a governess for herself, she having
completed her education, and being wishful to
exert herself as her sisters had done. Inquiries
were made, and at length a situation was ob-
tained. Anne continued in this kind of employ-
ment during the next six years, and it was her
experience that suggested to her the subject of
her first novel, 'Agnes Grey.' If we may sup-
pose that she has recounted her own experience
at this time, where her heroine describes the
circumstances of her preparation and departure
for her first situation, it would appear that she
had some difficulty in convincing her friends of
the wisdom of her purpose. Agnes Grey says,
after she has made the suggestion to her family :

' I was silenced for that day, and for many
succeeding ones; but still I did not wholly
relinquish my darling scheme. Mary got her
drawing materials, and steadily set to work.
I got mine too ; but, while I drew, I thought
of other things. How delightful it would be

234 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

to be a governess ! To go out into the world ;
to enter upon a new life ; to act for myself ;
to exercise my unused faculties ; to try my
unknown powers ; to earn my own mainten-
ance, and something to comfort and help my
father, mother, and sister, besides exonerating
them from the provision of my food and cloth-
ing ; to show papa what his little Agnes could
do ; to convince mamma and Mary that I was
not quite the helpless, thoughtless being they
supposed. And then, how charming to be en-
trusted with the care and education of children !
AVhatever others said, I felt I was fully com-
petent to the task : the clear remembrance
of my own thoughts in early childhood would
be a surer guide than the instructions of the
most mature adviser. I had but to turn from
my little pupils to myself at their age, and I
should know at once how to win their con-
fidence and affections ; how to waken the con-
trition of the erring; how to embolden the
timid arid console the afflicted; how to make
virtue practicable, instruction desirable, and
religion lively and comprehensible.'1
1 ' Agues Grey,' chap. i.

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 235
i

Anne Bronte was of a milder and more cheer-
ful temperament than her sisters ; she had not
the fire, the morbid feeling, or the mental force
that characterized Charlotte, yet she had more
of the initiatory faculty than she had hitherto
received credit for. But her gentle nature, her
confiding piety, her more equable temper, en-
abled her to succeed better in the circum-
stances she had chosen. She had her troubles,
her timidity, and her diffidence to contend with,
but she made life supportable and even happy.
' Agnes Grey ' thus speaks of her departure,
which we cannot doubt is the experience of
Anne Bronte :

' Some weeks more were yet to be devoted
to preparation. How long, how tedious those
weeks appeared to me ! Yet they were happy
ones in the main, full of bright hopes and ardent
expectations. With what peculiar pleasure I
assisted at the making of my new clothes, and,
subsequently, the packing of my trunks ! But
there was a feeling of bitterness mingling with
the latter occupation too ; and when it was
done — when all was ready for my departure
on the morrow, and the last night at home

236 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

approached — a sudden anguish seemed to swell
my heart. My dear friends looked sad, and
spoke so very kindly, that I could scarcely keep
my heart from overflowing ; but I still affected
to be gay. I had taken my last ramble with
Mary on the moors, my last walk in the gar-
den and round the house ... I had played
my last tune on the old piano, and sung my
last song to papa, not the last, I hoped, but
the last for what appeared to me a very long
time.'1

Charlotte and Emily made themselves busy
in assisting Anne with her preparations for de-
parture, and they were very sad and apprehen-
sive when she left them on Monday, April 15th,
1839. She went alone, at her own wish, think-
ing she could manage better if left to her own
resources, and when her failings were unwit-
nessed by those whose hopes she wished to
sustain. However, she wrote, expressing satis-
faction with the place she had secured, for the
lady of the house was very kind. She had two
of the eldest girls under her charge, the children

1 ' Agnes Grey,' chap. L

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 237

being confined to the nursery, with which she
had no concern.

Charlotte, although remarking in a letter to
her friend on the cleverness and sensibility with
which Anne could express herself in epistolary
correspondence, had some fear that, such was
the natural diffidence of her manner, her mis-
tress would sometimes believe her to have an
impediment in her speech.

Charlotte's eagerness to obtain a situation
was now so great that she does not seem to
have considered well the step she was about
to take, and she obtained one that was not
satisfactory to her. It was in the family of a
wealthy Yorkshire manufacturer ; and we may
well believe that the stylish surroundings of
her employers differed materially from those
of the family at Haworth. Here a large
quantity of miscellaneous work was thrown
on Charlotte, which displeased her and de-
stroyed her comfort. In a letter to Emily,
she says she -is ' overwhelmed with oceans of
needlework; yards of cambric to hem, muslin
night-caps to make, etc.' She found the out-
side attractions of the house beautiful in ' plea-

233 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

sant woods, white paths, green lawns, and blue,
sunshiny sky ;' but these surroundings did not
compensate for the humiliations which her situa-
tion imposed upon her, and her mistress and
she did not like each other; so Charlotte did
not return to the place after the July holidays
of 1839.

Branwell was as yet unemployed, arid he
sought, and took much pleasure in the scenery,
the events and circumstances of the hills and
valleys of the West-Riding of Yorkshire, and was
frequently from home. He went about the
country, associating with the people, and revell-
ing in their ready wit, which enabled him after-
wards, by such observations and experience, to
give vivid pictures of life and character. At the
time of the Haworth ' Rushbearing,' of July,
1839, he visited Liverpool with one or two
friends, and, while there, in compliance with an
injunction of his father, made a stenographic
report, at St. Jude's church, of a sermon by the
Rev. H. McNeile, the well-known evangelical
preacher. Here, a sudden attack of Tic com-
pelled him to resort to opium, in some form, as
an anodyne, whose soothing effect in pain he

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 230

bad previously known. Subsequently, passing
a music shop, in one of their rambles through
the town, Bran well's attention was arrested by
a copy of the oratorio of ' Samson,' by Handel,
displayed in the window, the performance of
which had always excited him to the highest
degree, and he eagerly besought his friend to
purchase it, as well as some Mass, and various
oratorio music, which was done.

On their return from Liverpool, Branwell,
being under some obligation to his friend,
proffered to paint his portrait, to which Mr.

M agreed. A sitting once a week was

decided upon, to be in the room at the parsonage
where Branwell studied and painted. On his

visits, Mr. M invariably noticed a row of

potatoes, placed on the uppermost rib of the
range to roast, Branwell being very fond of
them done in this way, even as Jane Eyre was
in the novel. ' That night,' she says, ' on going
to bed, I forgot to prepare, in imagination, the

Barmecide supper of hot roast potatoes

with which I was wont to amuse my inward

cravings.' When Mr. M paid his weekly

visits to the parsonage he always heard some

240 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

one speaking aloud in the room adjoining Bran-
well's studio ; and, at last, his curiosity being
excited, he inquired whom it was. Branwell
answered that it was his father committing his
Sunday's sermon to memory. When the portrait

was ready for the finishing touches, Mr. M

discovered that Branwell had painted the names
of Johanii Sebastian Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and
Handel at each corner of the canvas respectively.
He remonstrated, but Branwell was firm, main-
taining that, as his friend was an accomplished
musician, and could perform the most elaborate
and difficult compositions of these immortal men,
with expression and ease, he was, in every way,
worthy of being associated with them in the

manner he designed. Mr. M complied.

When the portrait was finished, Branwell pressed
his friend to take a glass of wine; and, while
the two were chatting over the affair, Mr. Bronte
and his daughters entered the room to view
BranweH's work on its completion. They were
pleased with it, and praised it as a truthful like-
ness and an excellent picture.

We may well imagine the enthusiasm with
Avhich Branwell would recount his experience of

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 241

Liverpool. How much he would have to tell
of the wonders of the Mersey, the great ships
that rode upon its surface, and its commerce with
the new world, out across the ocean ! His visit
seems to have originated a proposal that the
family should spend a week or a fortnight at
that seaport, but, almost at the same moment,
Charlotte's friend suggested to her that they
should visit Cleethorpes together, a suggestion
that pleased her very much.

' The idea of seeing the sea,' she says, 'of being
near it — watching its changes by sunrise, sunset,
moonlight, and noon-day — in calm, perhaps in
storm — fills and satisfies my mind. I shall be
discontented at nothing. And then I am not
to be with a set of people with whom I have
nothing in common — who would be nuisances
and bores.'

The visit of Charlotte to the sea-side seems to
have been put off again and again, by often-
recurring obstacles. The irresolution of her
family in regard to the Liverpool project, and
the manifest unwillingness that she should leave
home on a visit anywhere else, put off, from time
to time, the pleasure she had anticipated for her-

YOL. I. K

242 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

self ; but at last she decided to go. Her box was
packed and everything prepared, but no con-
veyance could be procured. Mr. Bronte objected
to her going by coach, and walking part of the
way to meet her friend, and her aunt exclaimed
against 'the weather, and the roads, and the
four winds of heaven,' so Charlotte almost gave
up hope. She told her friend that the elders of
the house had never cordially acquiesced in the
measure, and that opposition was growing more
open, though her father would willingly have
indulged her. Even he, however, wished her
to remain at home. Charlotte was ' provoked '
that her aunt had deferred opposition until
arrangements had been made. In the end ' E '
was asked to pay a visit to the parsonage.

Owing to the circumstances indicated, Char-
lotte's visit to the sea-coast was put off until the
following September, when an opportunity occurr-
ed favourable to the project, which does not seem
to have been entirely abandoned ; and she and
her friend visited Easton where they spent a
fortnight. Here for the first time Charlotte
beheld the sea.

Afterwards she wrote, 'Have you forgotten

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 243

the sea by this time, E.? Is it grown dim
in your mind ? Or can you still see it, dark,
blue and green and foam-white, and hear it
roaring roughly when the wind is high, or
rushing softly when it is calm?' The Liver-
pool journey appears to have been finally
abandoned.

It was in a letter, written about this time that
Mrs. Gaskell found the first mention of a
succession of curates who henceforth revolved
round Haworth Parsonage. Three years earlier
Mr. Bronte had sought aid from the ' Additional
Curates' Society,' or some similar institution,
and was provided at once with assistance. The
increasing duties of his chapelry had rendered
this step necessary. It would seem also that a
curate was appointed to Stanbury, while another
became master of the National or Grammar School.
These gentlemen were not infrequent in their
visits to the parsonage, and they varied the life
of its inmates, sometimes one way and some-
times another. This circumstance, at the same
time, provided Charlotte Bronte with those liv-
ing studies which she did not fail afterwards to
remember in her delineation of the three curates

R2

244 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

in ' Shirley/ Emily, on the other hand, invari-
ably avoided these gentlemen.

The arrival of the curates at Haworth was
the occasion of increased activity in the affairs
of the chapelry ; and, the church-rate question
being uppermost at this juncture, the new-comers
entered into a crusade against the Dissenters
who had refused to pay church-rates. Charlotte
wrote a long letter in which she spoke of a
violent public meeting held at Haworth about
the affair, and of two sermons against dissent —
one by Mr. W. a ' noble, eloquent, high-church,
apostolical-succession discourse, in which he
banged the Dissenters most fearlessly and
unflinchingly;' the other by Mr. C., a 'keener,
cleverer, bolder, and more heart-stirring har-
angue,' than Charlotte, perhaps, had ever heard
from the Haworth pulpit. She, however, did
not entirely agree with either of these gentle-
men, and thought, if she had been a Dissenter,
she would have ' taken the first opportunity of
kicking or of horse- whipping both.'

In the winter of 1839 — 40, Charlotte em-
ployed her leisure in the composition of a story
which she had commenced on a scale commen-

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 245

eurate with one of Richardson's novels of seven
or eight volumes. Mrs. Gaskell saw some
fragments of the manuscript, written in a very
small hand : but she was less solicitous to deci-
pher it, as Charlotte had herself condemned it
in the preface to ' The Professor.' Branwell, to
whom she submitted it, seems to have under-
stood, at the time, that in its florid style of
composition she was working in opposition to
her genius, and he told her she was making a
mistake. It appears not unlikely that Branwell
was himself similarly engaged on prose writing
when he gave her this opinion. A few months
later, however, Charlotte resolved to send the
commencement of her tale to Wordsworth, and
that an unfavourable judgment was the result,
for which she was not altogether unprepared,
may be gathered from the following letter she
addressed to the poet : —

' Authors are generally very tenacious of their
productions, but I am not so much attached to
this but that I can give it up without much
distress. No doubt if I had gone on I should
have made quite a Richardsonian concern of it
... I had materials in my head for half-a-dozen

246 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

volumes .... Of course it is with considerable
regret I relinquish any scheme so charming as
the one I have sketched. It is very edifying
and profitable to create a world out of your own
brains, and people it with inhabitants who are
so many Melchisedecs, and have no father or

mother but your own imagination I am

sorry I did not exist fifty or sixty years ago,
when the "Ladies' Magazine "was flourishing
like a green bay-tree. In that case, I make 110
doubt, my aspirations after literary fame would
have met with due encouragement, and I should
have had the pleasure of introducing Messrs.
Percy and West into the best society, and
recording all their sayings and doings in double-
columned, close-printed pages ... I recollect,,
when I was a child, getting hold of some anti-
quated volumes, reading them by stealth with
the most exquisite pleasure. You give a correct
description of the patient Grisels of these days.
My aunt was one of them ; and to this day she
thinks the tales of the "Ladies' Magazine"
infinitely superior to any trash of modern litera-
ture. So do I ; for I read them in childhood,
and childhood has a very strong faculty of

EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. 247

admiration, but a very weak one of criticism
... 1 am pleased that you cannot quite decide
whether I am an attorney's clerk or a novel-
reading dressmaker. I will not help you at
all in the discovery . . .'

In the midst of their literary endeavours, their
efforts were not relaxed to obtain new places.
Charlotte was obliged by circumstances to give
up her subscriptions to the Jews, and she deter-
mined to force herself to take a situation, if one
could be found, though she says, ' I hate and
abhor the very thoughts of governess-ship.' An
alternative which the sisters talked over in these
holidays was the opening of a school at Haworth,
for which an enlargement of the parsonage
Avould be required.

Branwell was more successful in his pursuit
of employment than Charlotte, having procured
the place of a tutor ; and he was to commence
his duties with the new year. Charlotte says
of this event, ' One thing, however, will make
the daily routine more unvaried than ever.
Branwell, who used to enliven us, is to leave
us in a few days, and enter the situation of a
private tutor in the neighbourhood of Ulverston.

248 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

How he will like to settle remains yet to be
seen. At present he is full of hope and resolu-
tion. I, who know his variable nature, and his
strong turn for active life, dare not be too
sanguine.'

Branwell seems to have paid a farewell visit
to the ' Lodge of the Three Graces ' on the
Christmas Day of this year, when he acted as
organist. This is the only occasion on which
he is recorded as having attended at the meet-
ings of the Lodge in 1839, and it is the last on
which his name appears in the minute book of
the Haworth masonic body.

249

CHAPTER XVI.

BRANWELL AT BROUGHTON-IN-FURNESS.

The District of Black Comb — BranwelFs Sonnet — Words-
worth and Hartley Coleridge — Branwell's Letter to
the ' Old Knave of Trumps ' — Its Publication by
Miss Robinson in her 'Emily Bronte' — Branwell's
familiar Acquaintance with the People of Haworth
— He could Paint their Characters with Accuracy —
His Knowledge of the Human Passions — Emily's
Isolation.

BRANWELL, being as desirous of employment as
his sisters, had sought for, and obtained, a situa-
tion as tutor in the family of Mr. Postlethwaite,
of Broughtou-in-Furness. He entered upon his
new duties ou the 1st of January, 1840.

Now that he found himself resident near the
English lake district, consecrated as it is by
so many poetic memories, and dear to him as the
home of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey

250 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

lie naturally felt an intense interest in all that
surrounded him; and, when he was not en-
gaged in teaching the sons of his employer, he
took occasion to visit such places as had any
attraction for him. On one of his pedestrian
excursions, he had stepped into a wayside inn,
and was seated musing before the parlour fire,
when a young gentleman entered the room.
Branwell turned round, and recognized at once
a friend of the name of Ayrton, whose acquaint-
ance he had formed in Leeds. The surprise
and delight at this unexpected meeting was
mutual ; and Bran well's friend, who was driving
about the country, requested his company for
some distance on the journey, for the purpose
of prolonging the interview, and of continuing
the conversation that had been begun. The
young tutor drove some ten miles with his
friend, utterly regardless of the long return
walk to Diversion.

Branwell delighted in the writings of the
' Lake Poets,' and was much influenced by
Southey's prose works. He read the 'Life of
Nelson,' and was himself moved to write a poem
illustrative of the life of that great naval hero.

BRANYvTELL AT BROUGHTON-IN-FURNESS. 251

He also read the ' Colloquies on Society,' and
others of South ey's works. But it was Words-
worth who at this moment, was the object of
Branwell's chief admiration. He revelled in
that poet's fine description of the view from

the top of Black Comb, and, perhaps, knew the

i

lines written by his ' deity of the mind ' on
a stone on the side of the mountain, and pro-
bably had himself looked from its summit. But
Bran well certainly knew Black Comb from afar.
Five miles away he could see it ; and he cele-
brated it in the following sonnet :

BLACK COMB.

' Far off, and half revealed, 'mid shade and light,

Black Comb half smiles, half frowns ; his mighty form
Scarce bending into peace — more formed to fight
A thousand years of struggles with a storm
Than bask one hour, subdued by sunshine warm,
To bright and breezeless rest ; yet even his height
Towers not o'er this world's sympathies, he smiles —
While many a human heart to pleasures' wiles
Can bear to bend, and still forget to rise —
As though he, huge and heath-clad, on our sight,
Again rejoices in his stormy skies.
Man loses vigour in unstable joys.
Thus tempests find Black Comb invincible,
"While we are lost, who should know life so well !'

'252 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

It was doubtless while Branwell was living
at Ulverston that he obtained the favourable
opinion of Wordsworth on some poems which
he submitted for criticism. Probably he found
opportunity to visit the writer whose works he

' loved most in our literature,' and it would be

»

on some similar excursion that he obtained an
encouraging expression of opinion from Hartley
Coleridge. The author of ' The Northern Wor-
thies' was not unknown to the circle at 'The
George,' at Bradford, and was acquainted with
Branwell Bronte and Leyland.

The master of the 'Lodge of the Three
Graces,' at Haworth, did not, however, long
permit Branwell to forget his old acquaintance
there ; for this worthy soon addressed to him a
communication which provoked a reply that
Branwell dated from Broughton-in-Furness on
the 13th of the March following his arrival. This
imfortunate response, in which Branwell ad-
dressed the masonic sexton of Haworth, with
sarcastic humour, as ' Old Knave of Trumps,' is
the one which Miss Robinson has been so ill
advised as to publish in her 'Emily Bronte;' and
which has done not a little to draw down on the

BRANWELL AT BROUGHTOX-IX-FURNESS. 253

head of Bran well the full and unmitigated
volume of Mr. Swinburne's vocabulary of abuse.
And, in fact, if this letter could be taken as the
proper and natural expression of an abject pro-
fligate, altogether shameless and unredeemed,
he could find a defender neither here nor else-
where. But there are good reasons for hoping
that it was otherwise. We have seen that Bran-
well had been led to join the rude village society
of Ha worth, where, on account of his brilliance,
and of his position as the incumbent's son, he
was not a little looked up to. It was natural,
then, that he should be led, foolishly enough, to
endeavour to stand well with the friends he had
selected, and his knowledge of character was
sufficiently good to enable him to know what
kind of letter would best suit the tastes and
inclinations of many of his companions of the
' Lodge of the Three Graces.' He assumed in
fact, that bravado of vice, that air of diablerie,
which was thought by many people, in those
days, and is so yet by not a few, to be the best
proof of manhood, because it betokened a know-
ledge of the world. Yet, at the end of the
letter, — the passage is not given by Miss Robin-

254 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

son — Brairwell appears to take it as a matter of
course that the sexton, will not show it, and he
begs him, for ' Heaven's sake,' to blot out the
lines scored in red. Bran well knew the 'Old
Knave of Trumps' well, and he was certain that
his letter would cause no little amusement
among his immediate friends to whom the sexton
was sure to read it. He was ashamed of certain
passages in it, which is evidence enough
that it was not the outcome of a depraved and
shameless nature, but rather the expression of
the acted character of a vicious and blase world-
ling. And it is, moreover, inconceivable that a
young man, who was of the sensitive nature
betokened by the contemporary poems we have
published, could, at the same time, have been
a hardened and cynical profligate. Indeed, it is
evident that the objectionable allusions were
not of his origination, but were called forth by
the remarks of others, for whom Branwell does
not fail to show his contempt.

It has, however, been the misfortune of Bran-
well Bronte, that a letter which he wrote in
folly, for the eyes of personal friends alone, has

BRANWELL AT BROUGHTON-IN-FURNESS. 25,5

been published to the world as the token and
evidence of his infamy. One use, at any rate,
flows from the publication of it, for it shows us
the quick and vivid grasp of character, and the
incisive mode of composition which now began,
in his more vigorous moods, to distinguish its
author. The letter is as follows : —

, ; Broughton-in-Fumess,
• March 13, 1840.

' OLD KNAVE OF TRUMPS,

* Don't think I have forgotten
you, though I have delayed so long in writing
to you. It was my purpose to send you a yarn
as soon as I could find materials to spin one with,
and it is only just now that I have had time to
turn myself round and know where I am. If
you saw me now, you would not know me, and
you would laugh to hear the character the people
give me. Oh, the falsehood and hypocrisy of
this world ! I am fixed in a little retired town
by the sea-shore, among wild woody hills that
rise round me — huge, rocky, and capped with
clouds. My employer is a retired county magis-

256 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

trate, a large landowner, and of a right hearty
and generous disposition. His wife is a quietr
silent, and amiable woman, and his sons are two
fine, spirited lads. My landlord is a respectable
surgeon, and six days out of seven is as drunk
as a lord ! His wife is a bustling, chattering,
kind-hearted soul ; and his daughter! — oh! death
and damnation! Well, what am I? That is,,
what do they think I am ? A most calm, sedate,
sober, abstemious, patient, mild-hearted, virtuous,,
gentlemanly philosopher, — the picture of good
works, and the treasure-house of righteous
thoughts. Cards are shuffled under the table-
cloth, glasses are thrust into the cupboard, if I
enter the room. I take neither spirits, wine, nor
malt liquors. I dress in black, and smile like a
saint or martyr. Everybody says, " What a good
young gentleman is Mr. Postlethwaite's tutor !"
This is fact, as I am a living soul, and right com-
fortably do I laugh at them. I mean to continue
in their good opinion. I took a half year's fare-
well of old friend whisky at Kendal on the night
after I left. There was a party of gentlemen at
the Royal Hotel, and I joined them. We ordered
in supper and whisky-toddy as " hot as hell !"

BRANWELL AT BROUGHTON-1N-FURNESS. 257

They thought I was a physician, and put me in
the chair. I gave sundry toasts, that were
washed down at the same time, till the room
spun round and the candles danced in our eyes.
One of the guests was a respectable old gentle-
man with powdered head, rosy cheeks, fat
paunch, and ringed fingers. He gave " The
Ladies," . . . after which he brayed off with a
speech ; and in two minutes, in the middle of a
grand sentence, he stopped, wiped his head, look-
ed wildly round, stammered, coughed, stopped
again, and called for his slippers. The waiter
helped him to bed. Next a tall Irish squire
and a native of the land of Israel began to
quarrel about their countries ; and, in the
warmth of argument, discharged their glasses,
each at his neighbour's throat instead of his
own. I recommended bleeding, purging, and
blistering ; but they administered each other a
real " Jem Warder," so I flung my tumbler on
the floor, too, and swore I'd join " Old Ireland !"
A regular rumpus ensued, but we were tamed
at last. I found myself in bed next morning,
with a bottle of porter, a glass, and a corkscrew
beside me. Since then I have not tasted any-
VOL. I. S

258 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

thing stronger than milk-and-water, nor, I hope,
shall, till I return at Midsummer ; when we will
see about it. I am getting as fat as Prince
William at Springhead, and as godly as his
friend, Parson Winterbotham. My hand shakes
no longer. I ride to the banker's at Ulverston
with Mr. Postlethwaite, and sit drinking tea and
talking scandal with old ladies. As to the
young ones ! I have one sitting by me just now
— fair-faced, blue-eyed, dark-haired, sweet
eighteen — she little thinks the devil is so near
her!

' I was delighted to see thy note, old squire,
but I do not understand one sentence — you
will perhaps know what I mean . . . How are
all about you ? I long to hear and see them
again. How is the " Devil's Thumb," whom
men call , and the " Devil in Mourn-
ing," whom they call . How are

, and , and the Doctor; and him

who will be used as the tongs of hell — he whose
eyes Satan looks out of, as from windows — I mean

, esquire ? How are little ,

" Longshanks," , and the rest of

them ? Are they married, buried, devilled, and

BRANWELL AT BROUGHTOX-IN-FURNESS. 259

damned ? When I come I'll give them a good
squeeze of the hand ; till then I am too godly
for them to think of. That bow-legged devil
used to ask me impertinent questions which I
answered him in kind. Beelzebub will make of
him a walking-stick ! Keep to thy teetotalism,
old squire, till 1 return ; it will mend thy old
body .... Does " Little Nosey " think I have
forgotten him ? No, by Jupiter ! nor his clock
either.1 I'll send him a remembrancer some of
these days ! But I must talk to some one
prettier than thee ; so good-night, old boy, and
' Believe me thine,

'THE PHILOSOPHER.

'Write directly. Of course you won't show
this letter ; and, for Heaven's sake, blot out all
the lines scored with red ink.'

This letter, as I have intimated, was never
intended for more than a moment's amusement,
at most, to a small circle of acquaintances at

1 The clock mentioned by Branwell was one that stood
in a corner of the ' Snug ' at ' The Bull,' inside the door
of which the landlord — ' Little Nosey ' — used to chalk up
the ' shots ' of his guests.

s2

260 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Hawortb, and was not to exist after having
been read. But John Brown kept the letter,
which I saw and copied. It is a curious
circumstance, illustrating the hold which
it obtained over the Haworth circle, that,
though the original was lost so long since as
1874, the brother of the sexton knew it by
heart, and could repeat it with considerable
accuracy. In this way it has been several times
written down. No allusion would have been
made to the letter in the present work, if Miss
Robinson — strange to say — had not thought it
a fitting embellishment for her ' Emily Bronte/
If Branwell had known its fate at the moment
he wrote it, it would never have reached the
' Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Three
Graces,' but would have been committed to the
flames by his own hand ; for, as we have seen,
he was ashamed of some expressions scored in
red, which he begged might be obliterated.

This letter, Jaowever, is valuable ; inasmuch
as it shows what Branwell, at this young period
of his life, knew about human nature, and the
depths to which it can descend. He had pene-
trated into the passions, feelings, and disposi-

BRANWELL AT BROUGHTOX-IX-FURXESS. 261

tions of his acquaintances by frequent intercourse,
by keen perception, and by familiar conversation.
He had heard them, noticed them, and could
paint their characters with unerring precision
-and vivid colouring. He was acquainted with
the ways of society, and the customs of domestic
life. The world was to him a picture-gallery,
arid all living things in it were studies of the
deepest interest. His knowledge of men and
manners, of the hard, implacable, and selfish,
and also of the soft, tender, and gentle natures
of men and women, enabled him to cast their
stories of sorrow and gladness faithfully and
well.

At the time when he had attained manhood,
when his intellects were reaching their full
development, he had already been drawn into
society, and indoctrinated into the mysteries of
Haworth life ; and had become acquainted with
the excesses of men older and harder than
himself. It cannot be wondered at that, if he
had learned more than is usual in youth, he did
not escape the temptations attendant on the
peculiar knowledge he had acquired. But,
while he was thus passing through the crooked

262 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

ways and reckless deviations of the world, ob-
taining a large crop of experiences, good and
bad, his sisters were, for the most part, at home,
living like recluses, and, when away, were still
in similar seclusion. Of Emily, Charlotte says,
'I am bound to avow that she had scarcely
more practical knowledge of the peasantry
amongst whom she lived, than a nun has of the
country people who sometimes pass her convent
gates. My sister's disposition was not natur-
ally gregarious; circumstances favoured and
fostered her tendency to seclusion ; except to go
to church or take a walk on the hills, she rarely
crossed the threshold of home. Though her
feeling for the people round her was benevolent,
intercourse with them she never sought, nor,
with very few exceptions, ever experienced.
And yet she knew them, knew their ways, their
language, their family histories ; she could hear
of them with interest, and talk of them with
detail, minute, graphic, and accurate ; but with
them she rarely exchanged a word.'1 But
Branwell walked and held personal intercourse,
as we have seen, with the people whom Emily

1 Charlotte Bronte. — Memoir prefixed to ' Wuthering Heights.*

BRANWELL AT BROUGHTON-IN-FURNESS. 2ti3

shunned ; and his personal knowledge, and his
unquestionable genius combined, enabled him
to grasp and appreciate, to dissect with pene-
trating skill, and to estimate and define the
tendency of the strong and marked character
of the people around him. It is, therefore,
doubly unfortunate that, from Branwell, we have
little remaining in the way of graphic descrip-
tion, and that tlje rich treasures of observation
which he outpoured have, for the most part, left
their impressions only in the memories of those
who were privileged to hear him discourse.

264

CHAPTER XVII.

BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. — CHARLOTTE'S
EXERTIONS.

Branwell's Appointment at Ulverston ends — He gets a
Situation on the Railroad at Sowerby Bridge — Bran-
well at Luddenden Foot — His Friends' Reminiscences
of him — Charlotte and Emily reading French Novels —
Charlotte obtains a Situation — Anxious about Anne —
School Project of the Sisters — Charlotte's keen Desire
to visit Brussels — Her Letter to her Aunt Branwell.

IF the performance of the responsible duties of
his appointment at Mr. Postlethwaite's, which
ended, at his father's wish, in the June of 1840,
had been felt by Branwell as a banishment
from the cheerful company of his Ha worth ac-
quaintances, it had been still greater from his
artistic and literary friends in the neighbour-
hood of Bradford and Halifax. Hence he
sought, with a perseverance amounting to

BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 265

anxiety, to obtain a post on the Leeds and
Manchester Railway, — to the opening of which
he had looked forward with concern — at some
place in the valley of the Calder, near Halifax ;
and he received the appointment of clerk in
charge, at the station at Sowerby Bridge.
Charlotte says of BranwelFs determination : ' a
distant relation of mine, one Patrick Branwell,
has set off to seek his fortune in the wild, wan-
dering, adventurous, romantic, knight-errant-like
capacity of clerk on the Leeds and Manchester
Railroad.'1 Branwell commenced his new occu-
pation at Sowerby Bridge on the 1st of October,
1840, just before the opening of the line from
Hebden Bridge to Normanton.

As has been already seen, an acquaintance had
existed between Branwell and Leyland ; but now
that the former had become a resident in the
immediate neighbourhood, after his visits to the
artist's studio had been interrupted for six
months, or more, by his stay at Broughton-in-
Furness, a more frequent intercourse followed
between the two. It was on a bright Sunday
afternoon in the autumn of 1840, at the desire
1 Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronto,' chap. ix.

266 THE BRONTii FAMILY.

of my brother, the sculptor, that I accompanied
him to the station at Sowerby Bridge to see
Branwell. The young railway clerk was of
gentleman-like appearance, and seemed to be
qualified for a much better position than the
one he had chosen. In stature he was a little
below the middle height ; not ' almost insignifi-
cantly small,' as Mr. Grundy states, nor had he
' a downcast look ;' neither was he ' a plain
specimen of humanity.'1 He was slim and
agile in figure, yet of well-formed outline. His
complexion was clear and ruddy, and the ex-
pression of his face, at the time, lightsome and
cheerful. His voice had a ringing sweetness,
and the utterance and use of his English were
perfect. Branwell appeared to be in excellent
spirits, and showed none of those traces of
intemperance with which some writers have
unjustly credited him about this period of his
life.

My brother had often spoken to me of Bran-
well's poetical abilities, his conversational powers,,
and the polish of his education ; and, on a per-

1 ' Pictures of the Past,' by Francis H. Grundy, C.E.
(1879) p. 75.

BRAN WELL AT SOWERBT BRIDGE. 267

sonal acquaintance, I found nothing to question
in this estimate of his mental gifts, and of his
literary attainments.

Branwell stayed at Sowerby Bridge some
months, whence he was transferred, in 1 841, to-
Luddenden Foot, a place about a mile further
up the valley, where a station had been recently
fixed. Mr. Grundy, who was an assistant-en-
gineer on the line, became acquainted with
Branwell at the latter place; and says of -it,
' there was no village near at hand,' and that,
'had a position been chosen for this strange
creature, for the express purpose of driving him
several steps to the bad, this must have been
it.'1

Mr. Grundy must have spoken from memory
only. The ancient village of Luddeuden Foot,
within two minutes' walk of the station, with its
population employed in the mills and manu-
factories of the neighbourhood, together with
its two old hostelries of the ' Red Lion,' and the
' Shuttle and Anchor,' was surely sufficient to
banish all solitude and wiklness from the neigh-
bourhood of Branwell's sojourn. Yet the change-

1 ' Pictures of the Past,' p. 75.

268 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

rwas scarcely a desirable one, and doubtless
helped to disgust Bran well with his employ-
ment. It is to be regretted that the respective
occupations of Branwell and Mr. Grundy were
of such a nature as to prevent a regular and
continual intercourse, and that distance of time
and place have so far dimmed Mr. Grundy's re-
miniscences of his friend, that, valuable though
the letters he has wisely preserved are, many in-
accuracies have entered into his recollections of
him, and Mrs. Gaskell's exaggerated account
has had undue weight in the picture he has
drawn.

Mr. William Heaton, author of a minor volume
of poems entitled the ' Flowers of Caldervale,'
knew Branwell Bronte well when he was at Lud-
denden Foot. He wrote to me a letter in which
occurred the following description of his mind
and character, and also of his conversation when
at one of the village inns, where they sometimes
met : —

' He was,' says Heaton, ' blithe and gay, but
at times appeared downcast and sad ; yet, if the
subject were some topic that he was acquainted
with, or some author he loved, he would rise from

BRANWELL AT SOWKRBY BRIDGE. 269

his seat, aud, iu beautiful language, describe the
author's character, with a zeal and fluency I had
never heard equalled. His talents were of a
very exalted kind. I have heard him quote
pieces from the bard of Avon, from Shelley,
Wordsworth, and Byron, as well as from
Butler's " Hudibras," in such a manner as often
made me wish I had been a scholar, as he
was. At that time I- was just beginning to
write verses. It is true I had written many
pieces, but they had never seen the light ; and,
on a certain occasion, I showed him one, which
he pronounced very good. He lent me books
which I had never seen before, and was ever
ready to give me information. His temper was
always mild towards me. I shall never forget
his love for the sublime and beautiful work's of
Nature, nor how he would tell of the lovely
flowers and rare plants he had observed by the
mountain stream and woodland rill. All these
had excellencies for him ; and I have often heard
him dilate on the sweet strains of the nightin-
gale, and on the thoughts that bewitched him
the first time he heard one.'

During Branwell's twelvemonths' stay at

270 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Ludclenden Foot, he formed new acquaintances,
but the avocations, tastes, and pursuits of the
well-to-do inhabitants did not accord with his ;
and he, perhaps, more frequently than was com-
patible with his duties, visited Halifax to seek
the intellectual enjoyment which his own narrow
occupation and the society of Luddenden Foot
did not afford.

While he was occupied in the service of the
railway company at this place, we hear nothing
relating to him, of moment, in Charlotte's corre-
spondence. Happy that he was employed, his
sisters engaged eagerly and earnestly in devising
schemes for obtaining a livelihood that might
enable them to work together for their mutual
assistance in literary labour.

Charlotte was still at home with Emily, read-
ing French novels, of which, we learn, she had
got another bale, ' containing upwards of forty
volumes.' 'I have read about half,' she says.
' They are like the rest, clever, wicked, sophis-
tical, and immoral. The best of it is, they give
one a thorough idea of France and Paris, and
are the best substitute for French conversation.'
We scarcely recognize, in this employment, the

BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 271

Charlotte Bronte of three years before, whose
religious mania was driving her to despair, un-
less, indeed, it be in the force with which she
pursues the new bent of her inclination. She has
read twenty volumes of this, the second, batch,
and was proposing to read twenty more. It
was her expectation that, by this process, she
would become sufficiently familiar with the
language to enable her to teach it to
others.

In the letter in which she announced that
Branwell had gone to his post on the railway
— written in good spirits, when she saw every-
thing couleu)'-de-rose, which, however, she at-
tributes to the high wind blowing over the
* hills of Judea ' at Haworth — she says : ' A wo-
man of the name of Mrs. B , it seems, wants

a teacher. I wish she would have me; and
I have written to Miss Wooller to tell her so.
Verily, it is a delightful thing to live at home,
at full liberty to do just what one pleases. But
I recollect some scrubby old fable about grass-
hoppers and ants, by a scrubby old knave,
yclept /Esop ; the grasshoppers sang all the
summer, and starved all the winter.'

272 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Branwell was proving himself no grasshopper,
for, if he sang, he was anxious to exert himself
in a practical way at the same time; and, so
far, he was doing well at Luddenden Foot.
Charlotte, too, was resolved to be employed,

but the negotiation with Mrs. B failed. The

lady expressed herself pleased with the frank-
ness with which Charlotte stated her qualifica-
tions, but she required some one who could
undertake to give instruction in music and
singing. This Miss Bronte could not do. She
does not appear to have had the musical taste
which her brother and sisters had inherited
from the Branwell family. She resembled her
father, perhaps, more closely than did any of
the other children. At last, however, in March,
1841, she entered her second situation as a
private governess. 'I told you, some time
since/ she writes to her friend, ' that I meant
to get a situation, and, when I said so, my
resolution was quite fixed. I felt that, however
often I was disappointed, I had no intention
of relinquishing my efforts. After being severe-
ly baffled two or three times — after a world of
trouble, in the way of correspondence and in-

BRAN WELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 273

terviews — I have at length succeeded, and am
fairly established in my new place.'

Charlotte found her residence not very large,
but the grounds were fine and extensive. She
had made some sacrifice to secure comfort, as
she says, not good living, but cheerful faces
and warm hearts. Her pupils were two in
number, one a girl of eight, and the other a
boy of six. Though always more or less afflict-
ed with home-sickness, whenever she was at
a distance from her father's house, with its
familiar and affectionate ways, she enjoyed, in
her new place, considerable relief from it, owing
to the spontaneous generosity and kindliness
of her employers. She says, indeed, * My earn-
est wish and endeavour will be to please them.
If I can but feel that I am giving satisfaction,
and if, at the same time, I can keep my health,
I shall, I hope, be moderately happy. But no
one but myself can tell how hard a gover-
ness's work is to me — for no one but myself
is aware how utterly averse my whole mind
and nature are for the employment. Do not
think that I fail to blame myself for this, or
that I leave any means unemployed to conquer

VOL. I. T

274 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

this feeling. Some of my greatest difficulties
lie in things that would appear to you com-
paratively trivial. I find it so hard to repel the
rude familiarity of children. I find it so difficult
to ask either servants or mistress for anything
I want, however much I want it. It is less
pain for me to endure the greatest inconveni-
ence than to go into the kitchen to request its
removal. I am a fool. Heaven knows I cannot
help it'

Charlotte found matters a little easier after
the first month of her stay, and her home-sick-
ness became less oppressive. Though her time
was much occupied, great kindness was shown
towards her, and her father and her friend were
invited to come to see her.

In June she wrote, in the absence of her
employer, ' You can hardly fancy it possible, I
dare say, that I cannot find a quarter-of-an-hour
to scribble a note in ; but so it is ; and when a
note is written, it has to be carried a mile to the
post, and that consumes nearly an hour, which

is a large portion of the day. Mr. and Mrs.

have been gone a week. I heard from them this
morning. No time is fixed for their return, but

BRAN WELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 275

I hope it will not be delayed long, or I shall miss
the chance of seeing Anne this vacation. She
came home, I understand, last Wednesday, and
is only to be allowed three weeks' vacation,
because the family she is with are going to
Scarborough. / should like to see her, to judge
for myself of the state of her health. I dare not
trust any other person's report, no one seems
minute enough in their observations. I should
very much have liked you to have seen her. I
have got on very well with the servants and
children so far ; yet it is dreary, solitary work.
You can tell as well as me the lonely feeling of
being without a companion.'1

The delicate Anne, struggling with all the
troubles, the indignities, of the life of a governess,
was a picture that was naturally distressing
enough to Charlotte, ever anxious, ever watchful
over the welfare of her youngest sister, and she
would, perhaps, be apt, in her imagination, to
exaggerate her sister's difficulties in the light of
her own. In truth the sisters had qualities of
mind and heart which did much to unfit them
for the enjoyment of content or happiness
1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte.' chap. x.

T 2

276 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

amongst strangers. Charlotte, in particular, with
a nature, sensitive, observant, and tenacious ; an
imagination highly wrought, active, and fertile,,
but too often morbid; with a will, powerful, yet
constrained by the nervous weakness of an excit-
able constitution, could with difficulty conform
inclination to the necessities of such a career ;
she longed for freedom. It was not surprising,
then, that when Charlotte reached Haworth —
which she did before Anne's return — there was a
revival of the project I have before mentioned
of the opening of a school, wherein they could
enjoy the liberty of home.

Mr. Bronte and Miss Branwell were not un-
favourably disposed towards the project, and
they conversed now and then, at the breakfast
table or in the evenings, as to how they could
best help the girls into the position they so much
coveted. The sisters must always have had a
friend in their father in these matters ; he could
not but be pleased and interested in struggles
and expectations which reproduced so closely
the hopeful days of his own early life, and we
learn, as the result of the deliberations of the
elders, that the aunt offered a loan, or intimated

BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 277

that she would, perhaps, offer one, in case her
nieces could give some assurance of the solidity
-of their plans in the shape of a situation decided
upon and of pupils promised. The East-Riding
was thought to be not so well provided with
schools as the West, and the favourite idea of
the sisters was to open their projected academy
in the neighbourhood of Burlington, where the
health, both of themselves and of their pupils,
might be hoped for. But there was a question
how much their aunt would be disposed to
advance them. Charlotte did not think she
would sink more than £150 in such a venture,
and she doubted if this Avould be a sufficient sum
with which to establish a school and commence
house-keeping, on however modest a scale.
These were reflections which damped a little the
excitement of hopeful expectation in which the
sisters, especially Charlotte, revolved these plans.
She anxiously awaited the coming of her friend,
on the day she was expected to visit them
during their holidays at the parsonage, wearying
her eyes with watching from the Avindow, eye-
glass in hand, and, sometimes, spectacles on
nose, eager to talk over her schemes with some

278 THE BROXTE FAMILY.

one else than her sisters and to hear a new
opinion. But her friend could not come, and
she says, ' a hundred things I had to say to you
will now be forgotten, and never said.' Char-
lotte began to fear some time must elapse before
her plans could be executed, and she resolved
not to relinquish her situation till something was
assured. But this expectation of keeping a
school, cherished through long years, was never
realized by the sisters ; ever and anon the shift-
ing sands of circumstance, the changing currents
of life, moved them away, even while they
believed themselves approaching the goal of
their hopes.

Charlotte returned to her situation, and she
tells her friend, in a letter dated August the 7th,
1841, that she < felt herself again. Mr. and Mrs.
were from home, and she takes the oppor-
tunity of saying that to be solitary there was
to her the happiest part of her time. She
enters into particulars of the household : the
children were under decent control, and the
servants were observant and attentive to her ;
she says of herself, moreover, that the absence
of the master and mistress relieved her from the

BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 279

duty of always putting on the appearance of
being cheerful and conversable.

Her friends, Martha and Mary T , were

enjoying great advantages on the Continent,
where they had gone to stay a month with their
brother. Charlotte had had a long letter from
Mary, and a packet enclosing a handsome black
silk scarf, and a pair of beautiful kid gloves
bought in Brussels as a present. She was
pleased with them, and that she had been re-
membered so far off, amidst the excitement of
' one of the most splendid capitals of Europe.'
Mary's letters spoke of ' some of the pictures
and cathedrals she had seen — pictures the most
exquisite, cathedrals the most venerable.' Some-
thing swelled to the throat of Charlotte as she
read this account. She was seized with a
' vehement impatience of restraint and steady
work; such a strong wish for wings — wings
such as wealth can furnish ; such an urgent thirst
to see, to know, to learn ; something internal
seemed to expand bodily for a minute.' She
was tantalized for a time by the consciousness
of faculties unexercised; then all collapsed.
She considered these emotions, momentary as

280 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

they were, rebellious and absurd, and they were
speedily quelled by the resolute spirit they had
disturbed. She hoped they would not revive,
as they had been acutely painful. The school
project, instead of at all fading, was gaining
strength, and the three sisters kept it in view
as the pole-star round which all their other
schemes, as of lesser importance, revolved. To
this they looked in their despondency. Char-
lotte was haunted, sometimes, and dismayed, at
the conviction that she had no natural knack
for her occupation. She says that, if teaching
only were requisite, all would be smooth and
easy ; and she adds, ' but it is the living in
other people's houses — the estrangement from
one's real character — the adoption of a cold,
rigid, apathetic exterior, that is painful.'

It appears that Miss Wooler was about this
time intending to give up her school at Dews-
bury Moor, and had offered it to the Misses
Bronte. One or two disadvantages had to be
set against the favourable terms on which they
might have the school. The situation could not
commend itself to Charlotte, anxious as she
was concerning Anne's health ; the number of

BRAN WELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 281

pupils had also diminished, and it would be
necessary to offer special advantages in the way
of education before they could hope to have a
prosperous establishment — so their friends ar-
gued. But Charlotte had resolved to take the
school. The sisters, however, could not feel
confident that their qualifications were such as
would render success certain. Hence, a sug-
gestion that was made to Charlotte which would
provide her with the necessary powers, was at
once taken up with all the energy of her nature ;
she thus writes to her aunt, on whom all must
depend :

' September 29th, 1841.

1 DEAR AUNT,

' I have heard nothing of Miss
Wooler yet since I wrote to her, intimating
that I would accept her offer. I cannot conjec-
ture the reason of this long silence, unless some
unforeseen impediment has occurred in con-
cluding the bargain. Meantime apian has been

suggested and approved by Mr. and Sirs. '

(the father and mother of her pupils) ' and
others, which I wish now to impart to you. My
friends recommend me, if I desire to secure per-

282 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

manent success, to delay commencing the school
for six months longer, and by all means to con-
trive, by hook or by crook, to spend the inter-
vening time in some school on the continent.
They say schools in England are so numerous,
competition so great, that without some such
step towards attaining superiority, we shall
probably have a very hard struggle, and may
fail in the end. They say, moreover, that the
loan of £100, which you have been so kind as
to offer us, will, perhaps, not be all required
now, as Miss Wooler will lend us the furniture ;
and that, if the speculation is intended to be a
good and successful one, half the sum, at least,
ought to be laid out in the manner I have
mentioned, thereby insuring a more speedy
repayment both of interest and principal.

' I would not go to France or to Paris. I
would go to Brussels in Belgium. The cost of
the journey there, at the dearest rate of travel-
ling, would be £5 ; living there is little more
than half as dear as it is in England, and the
facilities for education are equal or superior to
any other place in Europe. In half a year, I
could acquire a thorough familiarity with

BRANWELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 285

French. 1 could improve greatly in Italian,
and even get a clash of German ; i.e., provided
my health continued as good as it is now.
Mary is now staying at Brussels, at a first-rate
establishment there. I should not think of
going to the Chateau de Kokleberg, where she
is resident, as the terms are much too high;
but if I wrote to her, she, with the assistance
o Mrs. Jenkins, the wife of the British Chap-
lain, would be able to secure me a cheap, decent
residence and respectable protection. I should
have the opportunity of seeing her frequently :
she would make me acquainted with the city ;
and, with the assistance of her cousins, I should
probably be introduced to connections far more
improving, polished, and cultivated, than any I
have yet known.

' These are advantages which would turn to
real account, when we actually commenced
a school ; and, if Emily could share them with
me, we could take a footing in the world
afterwards which we can never do now. 1
say Emily instead of Anne ; for Anne might
take her turn at some future period, if our
school answered. I feel certain, while I arn

284 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

writing, that you will see the propriety of what
I say. You always like to use your money
to the best advantage. You are not fond of
making shabby purchases ; when you do con-
fer a favour, it is often done in style ; and
depend upon it, £50 or £100, thus laid out,
would be well employed. Of course I know
no other friend in the world to whom I could
apply on this subject except yourself. I feel
an absolute conviction that, if this advantage
were allowed us, it would be the making of
us for life. Papa will, perhaps, think.it a wild
and ambitious scheme ; but whoever rose in
the world without ambition1? When he left
Ireland to go to Cambridge University, he
was as ambitious as I am now. I want us
all to get on. I know we have talents, and
I want them to be turned to account. I look
to you, aunt, to help us. I think you will
not refuse. I know, if you consent, it shall not
be my fault if you ever repent your kindness.'

Charlotte had some time to wait for an an-
swer, but it came at last ; her enthusiasm had
carried the day. The answer was favourable :
she and Emily were to go to Brussels.

BRAN WELL AT SOWERBY BRIDGE. 285

At times, during his stay with the railway
company, Branwell would drive over from Lud-
denden Foot to visit his family at the Haworth
parsonage, having hired a gig for the purpose.
Mr. Grundy sometimes accompanied him, and
they would escape to the moors together, or
pay curious visits to the old fortune-teller, with
the curates. Then, says his friend, he was ' at
his best, and would be eloquent and amusing,
though, on returning sometimes, he would burst
into tears, and swear he meant to mend.' This
last statement is favourable to Branwell's calm
judgment upon himself. Few — and Branwell
was one of the last — drift deliberately into
wrong-doing. He was, like most other men,
often placed under influences which a habit of
attention and self-control would have enabled
him to resist. He knew, perhaps, in a desultory
way, what he ought to do, and what he ought
not; but, owing to his inattention to conse-
quences, he might, now and then, go wrong,
sometimes yielding to whatever illusion was
paramount within, acting in concert with what-
ever was most alluring without ; yet he could
draw his mental forces together, and review

236 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

his past actions with keen and painful accuracy.
Hence he was not destitute of the faculty of
analyzing his acts in the light of their moral
quality, and, when his sober judgment enabled
him to see them in their true bearing, he ex-
hibited a due contrition.

On Branwell's visits home, he learned much
of the exertions, the projects, and the resolves of
his sisters. He was aware of their aims, and
how important were the steps being taken to
qualify them the better for teaching others,
more especially in perfecting their knowledge
of the French language and of music. He
also knew of the ultimate hope of his sisters —
that, were the future secure, they would have
leisure to realize their early dream of one day
becoming authors, never relinquished, even when
distance divided, and when absorbing tasks oc-
cupied them. He had the highest appreciation
of their genius ; and, although he had his times
of hilarity, indulgence, and enjoyment, he was
certainly never forgetful of his own hopes and
aspirations in the same direction.

287

CHAPTER XVIII.
BKANWELL'S POETRY, 1842.

Situation of Luddenden Foot — Branwell visits Manchester
— The Sultry Summer — He visits the Picturesque
Places adjacent — His impromptu Verses to Mr. Grun-
dy — He leaves the Railway Company — Miss Robin-
son's unjust Comments — His three Sonnets — His poem
' The Afghan War ' — BramvelFs letter to Mr. Grundy
— His Self -depreciation.

LUDDEXDEN FOOT — the second place of Bran-
well Bronte's appointment as clerk in charge on
the Leeds and Manchester Railway — was a
village about equi-distant between Sowerby
Bridge and Mytholmroyd, situated in a fertile
and moderately-wooded valley, on the left bank
of the Calder as it descends from its source in
Cliviger Dean. The cultivated hills rise to a
considerable height on both sides of the river,

288 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

and are very romantic in character. Among
the manufacturers and gentry of the neighbour-
hood, Branwell found few to welcome him, and
from these he turned to the artists and literary
men he had previously known at Halifax.

But Branwell, in addition, made excursions

up the valley (Mr. W , his fellow-assistant,.

acting for him in his absence) in the direction
of Hebden Bridge, Heptonstall, the Ridge, Tod-
morden, and the heights of Wads worth. There
were, indeed, many places of marvellous beauty
and interest near, that have long been the theme
of artists and poets, with which he did not fail
to make himself acquainted.

The huge, rounded- hills, which border this
valley, are intersected in places by lovely cloughs
and glens, whose peat-stained streams rush over
their rocky beds, from the elevated grouse-moors
around, to pour their waters into the Calder.
From Luddenden Dean, between the townships
of Warley and Midgley, a brook makes its way
to Luddeuden Foot, through a glen on whose
verdant slopes stand several ancient houses of
architectural and historic interest. Among these
are Ewood Hall, where Bishop Farrer was born,

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 289

and Kershaw House, a beautiful Jacobean man-
sion. Crag Valley, which descends to the
Calder on the opposite bank, a mile or more
from Luddenden Foot, is deeper and more
thickly wooded. On one hand lies Sowerby —
with Haugh End, the birthplace of Archbishop
Tillotson — and, on the other, Erringden, which
was a royal deer-park in the days of the
Plantagenets. But the loveliest of the valleys
through which the confluent streams of the
Calder run, is that of Hebden, a romantic glen,
winding between the wooded and precipitous
slopes of Heptonstall — crowned with the ancient
and now ruined church of St. Thomas a Becket
— and of Wadsworth, with its narrow dell of
Crimsworth, which gave Charlotte Bronte a
name for the hero of the earliest of her novels.
Between these solemn heights the stream flows
beneath the huge crags of Hardcastle, and roars
over many a rocky obstruction in its channel
before it reaches the Calder at Hebden Bridge.
This was a district to which picnic-parties
from Haworth often came, there being a direct
road over the hills.

Branwell also visited Manchester on one occa-
VOL. I. U

290 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

sion ; and, on his return, he gave an account to a
young clergyman, then living in the neighbour-
hood of Mytholmroyd, who sometimes went to
his wooden shanty at Luddenden Foot to hear
his conversation, of how he had been impressed
with the architecture of the parish church at
Manchester, as he stood under the arched
portal, and beheld the long 'lines of pillars and
arches, and the fretted roof, the lightsome
details of which had charmed him. He went
forward on that occasion to the choir of the
church, and saw the Lady Chapel — which still
retained its beautiful screen, with its Perpen-
dicular tracery and shafts of that period —
occupied by - the gravedigger's implements,
which reminded him of the ' Worshipful Master
of the Lodge of the Three Graces,' consisting
of crowbar, mattock, spade, barrow, planks
and ropes ; for the Lady Chapel had been
made a convenient receptacle for these dismal
chattels.

The summer of 1841 was a somewhat mono-
tonous time for Branwell and his friend at the
quiet station. Here, in the intervals of the
trains, scarcely anything was heard except the

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 291

occasional hum of a bee or a wasp, or the
drone of a blue-bottle, while the almost vertical
rays of a summer sun darted down on the roof
of the wooden hut, and made the place unen-
durable. It was in moments of weary lassitude,
or in hours of drowsy leisure, that Branwell
whiled away the time by sketching carelessly
on the margins of the books — for the amusement
of himself and his friend — free-hand portraits
of characters of the neighbourhood, and of the
celebrated pugilists of the day.

But about Hebden Bridge there were people
known to Branwell, and he did not fail to visit
them. His sister, Charlotte, in after years, some-
times came to Hanging Royd, Hebden Bridge,
the house of my late friend, the Rev. Sutcliffe
Sowden, then incumbent of Mytholm — the
gentleman who afterwards performed the mar-
riage ceremony between the gifted lady and
Mr. Nicholls. The friendship of the latter and
Mr. Sowden dated from earlier years, and to
them Branwell was known when he was at
Luddenden Foot. He had, indeed, sometimes
clerical visitors at his ' wooden shanty ' to hear
his conversation. Mr. Sowden was an enthu-

u2

292 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

siastic lover of scenery, and the sphere of his
duties abounded in moors, wilds, crags, rivers,
brooks, and dells, which he often visited. Bran-
well's tastes accorded with his, but these attrac-
tions clearly drew Branwell's attention, too
often and too far, from the imperative duties of
his situation, comparatively light though they
were. As might be expected, therefore, the
work of this talented but changeful young man
was found unsatisfactory, and explanations were
demanded. About the time of the close of his
twelve months' official duties at Luddenden
Foot, an examination of his books was made,
and they were found to be confused and incom-
plete. The irregularity and the defects of his
returns had also been remarked, and an inquiry
was set on foot respecting them. The officials,
in looking over the books, discovered the pen-
and-ink sketches on the margins of the pages,
which I have already mentioned; and these
were taken as conclusive evidence of careless-
ness and indifference on the part of the unfor-
tunate Branwell in the performance of his duties
and the keeping of his accounts.

He had been made aware, by unwelcome

BRANWELL' s POETRY. 293

inquiries and remonstrances, that his position
with the railway company was precarious, and
he was filled with apprehension as to the ulti-
mate consequences. He was requested finally
to appear at the audit of the company, and his
friend \Y — — accompanied him.

It was at the Christmas of 3841, thnt the
Brontes expected to meet at home together, in
anticipation of Charlotte and Emily's journey to
Brussels; but Charlotte had not found her
brother there in the January of 1842, for she
writes on the 20th of. that month and year :
•* I have been every week, since I came home,
expecting to see Branwell, and he has never
been able to get over yet. We fully expect
him, however, next Saturday.'1 Branwell cer-
tainly returned home, but only when it had been
intimated to him that his services were no
longer required by the railway company. How
far he had felt the duties of his post irksome,
and the power of perseverance required incon-
sistent with his tastes and pursuits, does not
appear, though the inference that they were so
will scarcely be doubted. But the humiliation
1 ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. x.

294 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

and sorrow lie felt on the loss of his employ-
ment plunged him, for a time, into despair ; and
the natural gloom of his disposition, caused him
to magnify the common pleasures and enjoy-
ments of his leisure hours into crimes and omis-
sions of duty of no ordinary magnitude. But
the erroneous recollections of Mr. Grundy, re-
specting the situation of the station at Lud-
denden Foot, and its supposed deleterious
influence on Branw ell's manners and obliga-
tions, may justify a doubt as to the particu-
lar accuracy of many of his reminiscences of his
friend.

The folio wing incident of Branw ell's stay at that
place, which Mr. Grundy gives, maybe regarded
as affording a valuable contribution to his writ-
ings ; for, although impromptu, the verses show
that he could, .even on unexpected occasions,,
bring into play his innate faculty of verse with
no mean grasp of his subject, and a certain
harmony of rhythmical expression.

Mr. Grundy says, ' On one occasion he
(Branwell) thought I was disposed to treat him
distantly at a party, and he retired in great
dudgeon. When I arrived at my lodgings the

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 295

same evening, I found the following, necessarily
an impromptu : —

' "The man who will not know another,
Whose heart can never sympathize,

Who loves not comrade, friend, or brother,
Unhonoured lives — unnoticed dies :

His frozen eye, his bloodless heart,

Nature, repugnant, bids depart.

' " O, Grundy ! born for nobler aim,
Be thine the task to shun such shame ;
And henceforth never think that he
AVho gives his hand in courtesy
To one who kindly feels to him,
His gentle birth or name can dim.

' " However mean a man may be,
Know man is man as well as thee ;
However high thy gentle line,
Know he who writes can rank with thine ;
And though his frame be worn and dead,
Some light still glitters round his head.

' " Yes ! though his tottering limbs seem old,
His heart and blood are not yet cold.
Ah, Grundy ! shun his evil ways,
His restless nights, his troubled days ;
But never slight his mind, which flies,
Instinct with noble sympathies,
Afar from spleen and treachery,
To thought, to kindness, and to thee.

"•P. B. BUOXTE." '»

1 ' Pictures of the Past,' pp. 78—79.

296 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

Brauwell's extreme sensibility caused him,
indeed, to exaggerate both, the lights and the
shadows of his existence. He was gleeful, as I
found, full of fun, jest, and anecdote, in social
circles, or where literature and art were the
theme ; and then, almost involuntarily, would
rise to his feet, and, with a beaming counten-
ance, treat the subject with a vivid flow of
imagination, displaying the rich stores of his
information with wondrous and enthralling
eloquence. But, under disappointment or mis-
fortune, he fell a prey to gloomy thoughts, and
reached a state often near akin to despair. It
was at such moments that he usually took up
his pen to express, in poetry, the fulness of his
feelings and the depth of his sorrow ; and it is
to this fact that the pathetic sadness of most of
his writings is due. I have had occasion already
to speak of the melancholy tone which charac-
terized also the minds of his sisters.

The worth of Branwell's poetic genius about
this time, — the year of 1842, — has been unfairly
commented upon. Miss Robinson, questioning
the judgment of the Bronte sisters, undertakes
to doubt if Branwell's mental gifts were any

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 297

better than his moral qualities, and says : ' It is
doubtful, judging from Branwell's letters and
his verses, whether anything much better than
his father's " Cottage in the Wood " would have
resulted from his following the advice of James
Montgomery. Fluent ease, often on the verge
of twaddle, with here and there a bright felicitous
touch, with, here and there a smack of the con-
ventional hymn-book and pulpit twang — such
weak and characterless effusions are all that
is left of the passion-ridden pseudo-genius of
Ilaworth.' l

Miss Robinson's ignorance of Bran well's more
matured poems and writings has caused her, in
company with others, to fall into very grave
eiTors regarding him; and she, — with extreme
bitterness, it must be said, — has embellished her
biography of Emily with elaborate censures
of his misdeeds, and with accounts of his im-
puted glaring inferiority to his sisters in intel-
lectual power. It is pitiable, indeed, that Miss
Robinson, — and not she alone, — in the want of
Bran well's true life and remains, with nothing
to set against the primary errors of Mrs. Gaskell,
' ' Emily Bronte,' p. 97.

298 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

— should have joined the hue and cry against
him, and have essayed, almost as of set purpose,
to write down the gifted brother of the author
whose life she was giving to the world.

In 1842 Branwell began to feel more per-
ceptibly the development of his intellectual
powers, and to discern more clearly his natural
ability to define, in poetic and felicitous language,
his thoughts, feelings, and emotions. While
under the depression and gloom consequent upon
his disgrace, and the recent loss of his employ-
ment, he wrote the three following sonnets. The
profound depth of feeling, expressed with mourn-
ful voice, which pervades them, the full con-
sciousness of woe by which they are informed,
leave nothing wanting in their expression of
pathetic beauty ; and they are distinguished by
much sweetness of diction. These sonnets
favourably show the poetical genius of Branwell.
His soul is carried beyond his frail mortality;,
but sadness and sorrow, enshrouding his imagi-
nation, bind it to the precincts of the tomb.
Here, with pessimistic and gloomy philosophy,
he bids us, impressed Avith the slender sum of
human happiness, to recognize the constant

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 299

recurrence of the misery to which we are born,
and to discern how little there is beneficent in
nature or mankind.

SONNET I.
ON LANDSEER'S PAINTING.

' The Shepherd's Chief Mourner ' — A Dog Keeping Watch at
Twilight over its Master's Grave.

The beams of Fame dry up affection's tears ;

And those who rise forget from Avhom they spring ;

Wealth's golden glories — pleasure's glittering wing —
All that we follow through our chase of years —
All that our hope seeks — all our caution fears,

Dim or destroy those holy thoughts which cling

Round where the forms we loved lie slumbering ;
But, not with thee — our slave — whose joys and cares

We deem so grovelling — power nor pride are thine,
Nor our pursuits, nor ties ; yet, o'er this grave,
Where lately crowds the form of mourning gave,

I only hear thy low heart-broken whine —

I only see thee left long hours to pine
For Am whom thou — if love had power — would'st save !

SONNET II.
ON THE CALLOUSNESS PRODUCED BY CARE.

Why hold young eyes the fullest fount of tears "?
And why do youthful hearts the oftenest sigh,
When fancied friends forsake, or lovers fly,

Or fancied woes and dangers wake their fears ?

300 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

All ! he who asks has known but spring-tide years,

Or Time's rough voice had long since told him why!

Increase of days increases misery ;
And misery brings selfishness, which sears

The heart's first feelings : 'mid the battle's roar,
In Death's dread grasp, the soldier's eyes are blind

To comrades dying, and he whose hopes are o'er
Turns coldest from the sufferings of mankind ;

A bleeding spirit oft delights in gore :
A tortured heart oft makes a tyrant mind.

SONNET III.
ON PEACEFUL DEATH AND PAINFUL LIFE.

Why dost thou sorrow for the happy dead ?

For, if their life be lost, their toils are o'er,

And woe and want can trouble them no more ;
Nor ever slept they in an earthly bed
So sound as now they sleep, while dreamless laid

In the dark chambers of the unknown shore,

Where Night and Silence guard each sealed door.
So, turn from such as these thy drooping head,

And mourn the Dead Alive — whose spirit flies —
Whose life departs, before his death has come ;

Who knows no Heaven beneath Life's gloomy skies,
Who sees no Hope to brighten up that gloom, —

'Tis lie who feels the worm that never dies, —
The real death and darkness of the tomb.

It is painful to find the writer of these sad
beautiful sonnets spoken of in terms of

BRAN7 WELL'S POETRY. 301

reprobation, as being, at the time he wrote
them, and when asking Mr. Grundy's aid while
seeking a situation, ' sunk and contemptible.'

* Alas,' says Miss Robinson, ' no helping hand
rescued the sinking wretch from the quicksands
of idle sensuality Avhich slowly engulfed him I'1
Let us look further.

The Afghan "War, which commenced in 1838,
and had secured for the English arms what
seemed at the time a complete conquest, was
followed by the conspiracy of Akbar Khan, the
sou of Dost Mohammed, which occurred at the
beginning of winter, when help from India was
hopeless. There was an uprising at Cabul,
and several officers and men were slain, which
compelled Major Pottinger to submit to humili-
ating conditions. The British left Cabul; and
the disastrous retreat to India, through the
Khyber Pass, which commenced on January
6th, 1842, will long be sadly remembered.
Of sixteen thousand troops — accompanied by
women and children to the number of ten
thousand more — who were continually harassed
by hostile tribes on the way, and benumbed by
1 ' Emily Bronte,' p. 99.

302 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

the severity of the winter,onlyoiie mart, Doctor Bry-
Jon, survived to tell the tidings. Branwell, over-
whelmed by these horrors, published the folio wing
powerful and impressive poem in the ' Leeds In-
telligencer,' on May the 7th of the same year.

THE AFGHAN WAR.

' Winds within our chimney thunder,

Rain-showers shake each window-pane,
Still — if nought our household sunder —

We can smile at wind or rain.
Sickness shades a loved one's chamber,

Steps glide gently to and fro,
Still — 'mid woe — our hearts remember
We are there to soothe that woe.

x Comes at last the hour of mourning,

Solemn tolls the funeral bell ;
And we feel that no returning

Fate allows to such farewell :
Still a holy hope shines o'er us ;

We wept by the One who died ;
And 'neath earth shall death restore us ;
As round hearthstone — side by side.

* But — when all at eve, together,

Circle round the flickering light,
While December's howling weather
Ushers in a stormy night :

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 303

When each ear, scarce conscious, listens

To the outside Winter's war,
When each trembling eyelash glistens

As each thinks of one afar —

* Man to chilly silence dying,

Ceases story, song, and smile ;
Thought asks — " Is the loved one lying

Cold upon some storm-beat isle ?"
And with death — when doubtings vanish,

When despair still hopes and fears —
Though our anguish toil may banish,

Rest brings unavailing tears.

4 So, Old England — when the warning

Of thy funeral bells I hear —
Though thy dead a host is mourning,

Friends and kindred watch each bier.
But alas ! Atlantic waters

Bear another sound from far !
Unknown woes, uncounted slaughters,

Cruel deaths, inglorious war !

4 Breasts and banners, crushed and gory,

That seemed once invincible ;
England's children — England's glory,

Moslem sabres smite and quell !
Far away their bones are wasting,

But I hear their spirits call —
" Is our Mighty Mother hasting
To avenge her children's fall*?"

304 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

' England rise ! Thine ancient thunder

Humbled mightier foes than these ;
Broke a whole world's bonds asunder,

Gave thee empire o'er the seas :
And while yet one rose may blossom,

Emblem of thy former bloom,
Let not age invade thy bosom —

Brightest shine in darkest gloom !

' While one oak thy. homes shall shadow,

Stand like it as thou hast stood ;
"While a Spring greets grove and meadow,

Let not Winter freeze thy blood.
Till this hour St. George's standard

Led the advancing march of time ;
England ! keep it streaming vanward,

Conqueror over age and clime !'

In this poem Branwell prefaces his subject
with a picture of domestic suffering — one with
which he is familiar — and compares the con-
solation which accompanies the affectionate
attentions of those present, with the hopeless
fate and untended deaths of such as perish in
the storms and wars of distant places, far away
from their homes and fiiends. In the true, loyal,
and national spirit which animates him, his
manly appeal to England, comprised principally

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 305

in the last two verses, is perhaps one of the
noblest and most vigorous ever written.

In the May of 18 12, Leyland was commissioned
to execute certain monuments for Haworth and
its neighbourhood ; and, on the 15th of that
month, Branwell wrote to him, in reference
to a design for a monument which he had sent
for submission to a committee of which the
Ilev. P. Bronte was chairman, and invited him
to the parsonage on the 20th of the month, being
sure his father would be pleased to see him.
Leyland visited Haworth and partook of Mr.
Bronte's hospitality; and in the evening, accom-
panied by the incumbent and his son, appeared
before the monument committee.

Branwell also wrote an interesting letter to
Mr. Grundy on May 22nd, 1842, which that gen-
tleman erroneously assigns to 1845.1 In it he
says that he cannot avoid the temptation,
while sitting alone, all the household being at
church, and he being the sole occupant of the
parsonage, to scribble a few lines to cheer his
spirits. He alludes to the extreme pain, illness,

1 ' Pictures of the Past,' p. 84.
VOL. I. X

306 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

and mental depression he has endured since-
his dismissal. He describes himself, while at
Luddenden Foot, as a ' miserable wreck,' as
requiring six glasses of whisky to stimulate
him, as almost insane ! And he feels his re-
covery from this last stage of his condition to
be retarded by 'having nothing to listen to
except the wind moaning among old chimneys
and older ash trees, — nothing to look at except
heathery hills, walked over when life had all to
hope for, and nothing to regret.' He reproaches
himself, in bitter terms, with seeking indulgence,
while at Luddenden Foot, in failings which
formed, he declares, the black spot on his char-
acter. His sister Charlotte's mind appears to
have been cast in the same gloomy mould ; for,
when suffering under bodily ailment, or the de-
spondency and hopelessness which overshadow-
ed her soul, she was impelled, as we have seen,
to make confessions to her friend 'E' of her
* stings of conscience,' her ' visitings of remorse.'
She hates her { former flippancy and forward-
ness.' She is in a state of ' horrid, gloomy
uncertainty,' and clouds are ' gathering darker/

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 307

and a more depressing despondency weighs
•upon her spirits.1

In another letter to her friend, Charlotte
says she is 'in a strange state of mind —
still gloomy, but not despairing. I keep trying
to do right .... I abhor myself, I despise my-
self.' And again, later, she wonders if the
new year will be ' stained as darkly as the last
with all our sins, follies, secret vanities, and
uncontrolled passions and propensities,' saying
* I trust not ; but I feel in nothing better, neither
humbler nor purer.'2

Branwell, however, while making, in a like
tone, his unnecessarily exaggerated confession
to his friend, sets forth his renovation of soul
and body. He has, at length, acquired health,
strength, and soundness of mind far superior to
anything he had known at Luddenden Foot.
He can speak cheerfully, and enjoy the com-
pany of another, without his former stimulus.
He can write, think, and act, with some appar-

1 Gaskell's ' Life of Charlotte Bronte,' chap. viii.
2 ' Unpublished letters of Charlotte Brontci,' Hourn at
Home, vol. xi.

x2

308 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

ent approach to resolution, and he only wants
a motive for exertion to be happier than he has
been for years. He has still something left in
him which might do him service. He thinks he
ought not to live too long in solitude, as the
world soon forgets those who wish it ' Good-
bye.' Then, although ashamed of it, he ask»
for answers to some inquiries he had made about
obtaining a new situation, evidently thinking
Mr. Grundy's influence of importance in the
matter.

This letter must receive a passing notice.
It shows Bran well's mind vigorous and healthy,
although it had been disordered by physical
illness accompanied by brooding melancholy.
His picture of the lonely parsonage and the
solitude of the surrounding country, combined
with the expression of his own sad emotions, is
graphic enough. His sisters wrote with the
same power and the same artistic feeling. The
occasion of his writing this letter to Mr. Grundy
was his wish to obtain some employment in con-
nection with the railway, and he made this
overdrawn confession of his habits and indul-
gences when at Luddenden Foot, and contrast-

BRANWELL'S POETRY. 309

ed them with the great mental, moral, and bodily
improvement he had acquired since he left. It
was his hope that by this contrast he might
make a favourable impression, and that Mr.
Gruudy's position with the Messrs. Stephenson
might be a means of helping him to some em-
ployment suited to his tastes and abilities. But
Mr. Grundy could not aid him in this object,
which he pursued with all the feverish eagerness
of his urgent and impetuous nature. With
great vigour of expression he declares, ' I would
rather give my hand than undergo again the
grovelling carelessness, the malignant yet cold
debauchery, the determination to find how far
mind could carry body without both being
chucked into hell.'

But Branwell, at the time of which I speak,
was full of energy and industry; indeed, he
could not be idle. He wrote another letter in
reply to one he had received from Mr. Gruudy,
dated June the 9th, 1842. From this we learn
that his friend had either not entertained his
applications, or was unable to further his inter-
ests in the quarter from which employment
could come, for he had given discouraging

310 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

answers. Bramvell felt the disappointment
keenly, but says that it was allayed by Mr.
Grundy's kind and considerate tone. His friend
had asked why he did not turn his attention
elsewhere. To this Bran well replies that most
of his relations [ are clergymen, and others of
them, by a private life, removed from the busy
world. As for the church, he declares he has not
one mental qualification, ' save, perhaps, hypo-
crisy,' which might make him ' cut a figure in its
pulpits.' He informs Mr. Gruncly that Mr. James
Montgomery and another literary gentleman,
who had lately seen something of his work,
wished him to turn his attention to literature.
He declares that he has little conceit of himself,
but that he has a great desire for activity. He
is somewhat changed, yet, although not possessed
of the buoyant spirits of his friend, he might, in
dress and appearance, emulate something like
ordinary decency.

In Leyland's art commissions at Haworth,
Branwell took great interest, and in his corre-
spondence considerable activity and industry
appear. He wrote, on June the 29th, 1842, to
the sculptor, a letter, in which he alludes to the

BRAWELL'S POETRY. 311

conduct of some gentlemen of the committee at
1 la worth, who had acted in an unfair way to his
friend on a professional matter. He says : —

' I have not often felt more heartily ashamed
than when you left the committee at Haworth ;
but I did not like to speak on the subject then,
and I trusted that you would make that allow-
ance, which you have perhaps often ere now had
to do, for gothic ignorance and ill breeding;
and one or two of the persons present after-
wards felt that they had left by no means an
enviable impression on your mind.

' Though it is but a poor compliment, — I long
much to see you again at Haworth, and forget
for half-a-day the amiable society in which I am
placed, where I never hear a word more musical
than an ass's bray. When you come over, bring
with you Mr. Constable, but leave behind Father
Matthew, as his conversation is too cold and
freezing for comfort among the moors of
Yorkshire.'

At the bottom of the sheet on which this
letter is written, Branwell has drawn a pen-and-
ink sketch of rare merit. The weird wraste,
which stretches to the horizon, may represent

312 THE BRONTE FAMILY.

well the lonely wilds of Haworth, overshadowed
by the clouds of approaching night, and inter-
spersed with streaks of fading day, among which
the crescent moon appears. In the foreground
is a group of monuments, one a tomb sunk on
its side ; and, of the head-stones, one is inscribed
with the word * Resurgam.' Branwell was no m ean
draughtsman, and that his hand did not shake
with the excesses he is represented to have gone
through at this period of his life, the delicacy
of this elaborate drawing is sufficient proof.

Mr. Constable, mentioned in the letter, was an
acquaintance of the sculptor, a gentleman of
considerable ability in art and poetry. The
conviviality, which Branwell did not consider
altogether a dereliction of moral duty, led him
to make his quiet and humorous allusion to
Father Matthew.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

LONDON: PRINTED BT DUNCAN MACDONALD, BLKNHKIM HOCSfc.

PR
U68

U
v.l

Leyland, Francis A.
The Bronte family

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